ertÜrk yilmaz€¦ · comparison of open source customer relationship management software for...

COMPARISON OF OPEN SOURCE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM

ENTERPRISES

ERTÜRK YILMAZ

KADIR HAS UNIVERSITY

2011

E.Y

ILM

AZ

M

.S. T

hesis

2

011



ENTERPRISES

ERTÜRK YILMAZ

B.S., Mathematics And Computing, Beykent University, 2009

M.S., Management Information Systems, Kadir Has University, 2011

Submitted to the Graduate School of Science and Engineering

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Science

in

Management Information Systems


2011


GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING



ENTERPISES

ERTÜRK YILMAZ

APPROVED BY:

Dr. Christophe Bisson Kadir Has University

(Thesis Supervisor)

Dr. Birgit Oberer Kadir Has University

Asst. Prof. Mehmet Nazif Aydın Işık University

APPROVAL DATE: .. / .. / ….

ii

Comparison of Open Source Customer Relationship Management Software For

SMEs

Abstract

Organizations have to manage their customer relationship by a more measurable and

observable way if they want to face the changing nature of customers. Thus, CRM

has become a compulsory for companies to prosper. Yet, in order to satisfy

customers, to keep them loyal and retrieve information about them, the use of

dedicated software has become a necessity.

SMEs are the most important organizations in every economy. In spite of the fact

that CRM is an obligation for them as well, to develop and implement a CRM in

such organizations is difficult as they lack budget. Therein, open source software is a

potential solution. However, one can deem this type of software as solutions for

specialists. Therefore, SMEs have a strong need of guidance as they often lack

expertise regarding open source software.

In this study, a new method to evaluate software is proposed. Yet, it is applied to

evaluate the top 10 open source CRM software which constitutes a useful tool for

SMEs to select the best solution which match their needs.

Keywords: CRM–Customer Relationship Management, SME–Small and Medium

Enterprise,OSS–Open Source Software, Software evaluation.

iii

Açık Kaynak Kodlu Müşteri İlişkileri Yazılımlarının KOBİ‘ler İçin Kıyaslanması

Özet

Organizasyonlar müşterilerin doğasındaki değişimle yüzleşebilmek istiyorlarsa,

müşteri ilişkilerini daha ölçülebilir ve gözlemlenebilir şekilde yönetmelidirler. Bu

yüzden Müşteri İlişkileri Yönetimi (MİY) şirketlerin başarısı için zorunlu hale

gelmiştir. Müşteri memnuniyeti, müşteri bağlılığı ve bilgilerin müşterilerden

toplanması için, özel yazılımların kullanımı artık bir gereklilik halini almıştır.

KOBİ'ler her ekonomide en önemli organizasyonlardır. MİY‘in, KOBİ‘ler için bir

zorunluluk haline gelmiş olması gerçeğine rağmen, MİY geliştirilmesi ve

uygulanması, KOBİ‘lerin bütçe yetersizliği nedeniyle zordur. Bu hususta açık

kaynak kodlu yazılımlar potansiyel çözümlerdir. Ancak bu tip yazılımların uzmanlar

için bir çözüm olduğu sanılabilir. Bu nedenle KOBİ‘ler açık kaynak kodlu yazılım

konusunda ki tecrübe eksiklikleri nedeniyle, güçlü bir desteğe ihtiyaç

duymaktadırlar.

Bu çalışmada, yazılımları değerlendirebilmek için yeni bir metodoloji sunulmuştur.

Bu metodoloji, KOBİ‘lerin kendi ihtiyaçlarını karşılayabilecek en iyi açık kaynak

kodlu MİY yazılımlarını değerlendirebilmeleri için, açık kaynak kodlu en iyi 10 MİY

yazılımına uygulanmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: MİY–Müşteri İlişkileri Yönetimi, KOBİ–Küçük ve Orta Boylu

İşletmeler, AKKY–Açık Kaynak Kodlu Yazılımlar, Yazılım Değerlendirme.

iv

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Christophe Bisson who always

supported and helped me during the thesis period. Thank you for his useful advices

and encouragement.

I also wish to thank Prof. Dr. Hasan Dağ who encouraged me about exploring this

subject.

I wish to thank Mr. Yalçın Cahit Önel for helping me to get through the difficult

times, Mr. Mark Wyers for editing suggestions.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their patience, support and

encouragement. Words are not enough to express my thankfulness to you, as well as

to my friends.

v

To Ayşe and Cengiz Yılmaz

vi

Table of Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii

Özet ........................................................................................................................................ iii

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... iv

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. vi

List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... xi

List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... xii

List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... xiii

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1

1.1. Research Objectives ................................................................................................. 2

1.2. Thesis Structure ....................................................................................................... 3

Customer Relationship Management ................................................................................... 5

2.1. Objective of the Chapter .......................................................................................... 5

2.2. Defining Customer Relationship Management ........................................................ 5

2.3. Overview of Customer Relationship Management .................................................. 7

Small and Medium Enterprises .......................................................................................... 10

3.1. Objective of the Chapter ........................................................................................ 10

3.2. Defining Small and Medium Enterprise ................................................................ 10

3.2.1. The European Union Definition ..................................................................... 10

3.2.2. The World Bank Institute Definition ............................................................. 11

vii

3.2.3. In Turkey ........................................................................................................ 12

3.3. Overview of Small and Medium Enterprise........................................................... 12

3.4. Which Enterprises Need CRM Software?.............................................................. 13

3.5. Why are CRM Software Important for SMEs? ...................................................... 13

3.6. Different Types of CRM Software ......................................................................... 15

3.6.1. Commercial .................................................................................................... 15

3.6.2. Open Source ................................................................................................... 15

Open Source Software ......................................................................................................... 16


4.2. Defining Open Source Software ............................................................................ 16

4.3. Overview of Open Source Software ...................................................................... 17

4.3.1. Market Status ................................................................................................. 18

4.3.1.1. In Turkey ................................................................................................ 22

4.4. Why Should One Develop Open Source Software? .............................................. 24

4.4.1. Comparison of Commercial vs. Open Source CRM Software ....................... 25

4.5. Open Source Software and Small and Medium Enterprises .................................. 27

Methods to Evaluate Software ............................................................................................ 31


5.2. Evaluation Methods ............................................................................................... 31

5.2.1. ISO/IEC 9126 ................................................................................................. 32

5.2.2. Chaffey and Woods Criteria .......................................................................... 33

5.3. Selection of Criteria ............................................................................................... 34

5.3.1. Functionality .................................................................................................. 34

viii

5.3.2. Ease of Use .................................................................................................... 35

5.3.3. Performance ................................................................................................... 35

5.3.4. Scalability ...................................................................................................... 35

5.3.5. Compatibility ................................................................................................. 35

5.3.6. Extensibility ................................................................................................... 36

5.3.7. Stability or Reliability .................................................................................... 36

5.3.8. Security .......................................................................................................... 36

5.3.9. Support ........................................................................................................... 36

5.3.10. Portability ....................................................................................................... 36

5.3.11. Customization ................................................................................................ 37

5.3.12. Internationalization ........................................................................................ 37

Existing Open Source CRM Software ................................................................................ 38


6.2. Overview of Open Source CRM ............................................................................ 38

6.3. Top Ten Open Source CRM Software ................................................................... 39

6.3.1. Selection by Bruce et al ................................................................................. 39

6.3.2. Selection by Hakala ....................................................................................... 40

6.3.3. Selection by Dengate ..................................................................................... 40

6.3.4. Selection by Bucholtz .................................................................................... 40

6.4. Determining the Top Ten Open Source CRM ....................................................... 41

6.4.1. Selected Software ........................................................................................... 41

Evaluation and Comparison of Selected Software ............................................................ 42


ix

7.2. Evaluation of Selected Software ............................................................................ 42

7.2.1. Vtiger CRM ................................................................................................... 42

7.2.1.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 42

7.2.1.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 43

7.2.2. Sugar CRM .................................................................................................... 46

7.2.2.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 46

7.2.2.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 47

7.2.3. Daffodil CRM ................................................................................................ 50

7.2.3.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 50

7.2.3.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 50

7.2.4. Tustena CRM ................................................................................................. 52

7.2.4.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 52

7.2.4.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 53

7.2.5. Compiere CRM .............................................................................................. 55

7.2.5.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 55

7.2.5.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 56

7.2.6. Open CRX ...................................................................................................... 59

7.2.6.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 59

7.2.6.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 59

7.2.7. Splendid CRM ............................................................................................... 62

7.2.7.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 62

7.2.7.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 63

7.2.8. Hipergate CRM .............................................................................................. 65

x

7.2.8.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 65

7.2.8.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 65

7.2.9. CentraView CRM .......................................................................................... 67

7.2.9.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 67

7.2.9.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 68

7.2.10. Centric CRM .................................................................................................. 70

7.2.10.1. Overview ................................................................................................ 70

7.2.10.2. Evaluation .............................................................................................. 70

7.3. Comparison Table .................................................................................................. 73

7.4. CRM Implementation ............................................................................................ 76

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 78


8.2. Research Perspective and Implication ................................................................... 78

8.3. Suggestion for Further Research ............................................................................ 79

Reference .............................................................................................................................. 80

Appendix A: The Open Source Definition ......................................................................... 88

Curriculum Vitae ................................................................................................................. 92

xi

List of Tables

Table 3.1: Definition of SMEs of the EU .............................................................................. 11

Table 3.2: Definition of SMEs of the WBI ............................................................................ 11

Table 3.3: Definition of SMEs of Turkey .............................................................................. 12

Table 3.4: Reasons for implementing CRM .......................................................................... 14

Table 4.1: Internet Web Server Market ................................................................................. 18

Table 4.2: Popular open source software ............................................................................... 21

Table 4.3: The market shares of OSS into the global market ................................................ 21

Table 4.4: Open Source vs. Commercial ............................................................................... 25

Table 4.5 Proportion of enterprises which have internet access and use computer by

economic activity and size group – I .................................................................................... 28


economic activity and size group - II ..................................................................................... 28

Table 4.7 Why organizations are using OSS ......................................................................... 29

Table 7.1: Comparison Table ................................................................................................. 73

xii

List of Figures

Figure 1.1: Business orientations of the last 150 years ............................................................ 2

Figure 2.1: Customer management goals ................................................................................. 9

Figure 4.1: Total for Active Servers Across All Domains (June 2000 - May 2010) ............. 18

Figure 4.2: Primary Operating System for Software Development ....................................... 19

Figure 4.3: Adopting OSS was an important technology goal............................................... 20

Figure 4.4: Activity Map ........................................................................................................ 23

Figure 4.5: Environmental Map ............................................................................................. 23

Figure 4.6: What is the most important advantage in the use of open source? ...................... 25

Figure 4.7 Software development between open source and proprietary (commercial)

projects ................................................................................................................................... 26

Figure 5.1 ISO / IEC 9126 ..................................................................................................... 33

Figure 6.1: Forum Traffic For Daffodil CRM ....................................................................... 52

Figure 6.2: Distinction of ERP and CRM .............................................................................. 56

xiii

List of Abbreviations

AJAX Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

API Application Programming Interface

B2B Business to Business

B2C Business to Consumer

CPU Central Processing Unit

CRM Customer Relationship Management

CSV Comma Separated Values

EU European Union

IDE Integrated Development Environment

IE Internet Explorer

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission

ISO International Organization for Standardization

IT Information Technologies

JDBC The Java Database Connectivity

J2EE Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition

MS Microsoft

MSSQL Microsoft Structured Query Language

MYSQL My Structured Query Language

OS Open Source

xiv

OSI Open Source Initiative

OSS Open Source Software

PHP Personal Home Page

POSIX Portable Operating System Interface for Unix

RAM Random Access Memory

SDK Software Development Kit

SFA Sales Force Automation

SMB Small and Medium Businesses

SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises

SQL Structured Query Language

SSL Secure Socket Layer

UML Unified Modeling Language

WBI World Bank Institute

XML Extensible Markup Language

1

Chapter 1

Introduction

Globalization has started to erase boundaries between countries and a growing

number of companies compete today on a global market. The increasing competition

has led companies to realize that customers are the nucleus of the business world and

the success of companies depend on their ability to manage their relationship with

their customers. Due to the increase competition, companies have abandoned the

transactional-based point of view (Palmer, 2001; Robertson & Kellow, 2001).

Within the information age, customers with ―old habits‖ are gradually replaced by

customers who are more stringent, better informed and can buy from various places

such as a web site. Today‘s organizations have to make frequent changes to keep up

with the business realities. To keep up with new technologies, new demands from

customers are not easy for a large number of companies because they have traditional

structures and are cumbersome. Many companies which still did not enter into the

information age could not succeed to catch new customers and even lost many

existing customers (Uygun & Uslu, n.d.). This happened as they did not consider the

needs of customers or not enough. Until recently in Turkey, companies were only

considering how they could maximize their production. In any case, they would sell

their products regardless of customers‘ needs. As Hisarcıklıoğlu (2008) mentioned,

this behavior can no longer exist in this business world which proffers to be global

and toward hyper competition. Yet, thanks to globalization, customers‘ desires have

become more important. Thus, we have moved from a push to a pull system.

2

In this new era, customers have started to substitute products for others providing a

higher quality level. Bose (2002) explained the evolution of the business orientation

as a transformation from production to a customer-centric model (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1: Business orientations of the last 150 years (Bose (2002))

The development of Information Technologies (IT) has increased the competition.

From the release of word document to e-commerce, IT has become a leading force in

the business world. As Lester and Tran (2008) stated, one of the most important

components of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operation in today‘s

competitive environments is IT. To face the increased competition, firms can lower

prices, develop new products, increase promotion, add new distribution channels and

improve organizations‘ internal processes. IT can help SMEs to create business

opportunities and overcome pressures from the competition. Yet, IT has the potential

to help SMEs to develop new products and to better promote them. IT can supply a

competitive advantage to organizations if it is used effectively by choosing

appropriate software. In order to obtain a competitive advantage, companies‘

managers have to keep considering how they can reach, retain and satisfy their

customers. Thus, companies are forced to make structural changes. The biggest

change has been obviously the customer relationship because a company cannot

survive without customers (Nguyen, Sherif, & Newby, 2007). This explains the rapid

rise of customer relationship management (CRM).

1.1. Research Objectives

The objective of the thesis is to propose a method to compare open source (OS)

CRM software, which are potential solutions for SMEs. Firstly, the theoretical study

will sum up the previous literature and research about CRM, SMEs, open source

software (OSS) and software evaluation criteria. Thereafter, the OS CRM selected

will be compared and evaluated (empirical study). Thus, the study aims to provide a

3

better understanding of CRM especially for SMEs and a way to select OS CRM

for them to be able to develop CRM into their organization.

1.2. Thesis Structure

This thesis is divided into 2 parts: theoretical study and empirical study.

Part I (Theoretical study) sums up the literature about the subject which includes

five chapters as follow:

Chapter 2 presents a literature review that provides to the reader a CRM overview. It

includes the definition of CRM, objectives and benefits of CRM and why the

customer relationship is important.

Chapter 3 presents a literature review that provides to the reader information about

SMEs. In this chapter, the different existing definitions of SME are given according

to EU, World Bank and Turkey. This chapter answers to some questions such as:

Which enterprises need CRM? What is the cost of CRM? What are the reasons for

implementing CRM into an SME?

Chapter 4 presents a literature review that provides to the reader information about

OSS. In this chapter, we define open source and the market status for open source

software. Yet, we answer to such questions: Why using open source software? Why

OOS are especially interesting for SMEs?

Chapter 5 presents the evaluation methods which are the ISO/IEC and Chaffey and

Wood‘s criteria.

In chapter 6, we present some open source CRM software. These software were

selected as they are deemed as the best open source CRMs by some authors,

developers and researches.

4

Part II is the empirical study and Chapter 7 depicts the study. In the light of the

previous chapters, the comparison of the selected open source customer relationship

management software is done. In this chapter, the reader can easily understand the

differences between the selected 10 OS CRM software.

5

Chapter 2

Customer Relationship Management

2.1. Objective of the Chapter

The objective of the chapter is to provide a wide view of CRM and underline

relevant issues of CRM.

2.2. Defining Customer Relationship Management

Understanding and meeting customers‘ needs is a very important weapon to be

competitive. Following Wilson, Daniel and McDonald (2002), today‘s customers are

more educated, live longer, and more influenced by the global culture than those of

the 60s and 70s when our view of marketing was formed. That is to say, customers

are more conscious and they know what they want. If a company can handle that,

they might prosper. It is evident that the management of customer relationships is

very important for organizations.

A CRM system aims to save all types of information about customers in databases

which are designed in order to provide an organized mechanism for storing,

managing and obtaining information. Typical information can be customer names,

addresses, what did they buy, when, how much and the problems they faced

eventually. The aim of this system is to generate reports and to supply valuable

information to marketing and customer service departments in order to give better

and faster service.

As Yun, Wen and Yen (2003, p.39) mentioned, the Sweeney Group definition of

CRM as ―all the tools, technologies and procedures to manage, improve, or facilitate

6

sales, support and related interaction with customers, prospects, and business

partners throughout the enterprise.‖ In the literature, there is not a universal

definition of CRM. According to Zablah, Bellenger and Johnston (2004), there are

approximately 45 distinct definitions of CRM. Below, there are some different

definitions.

According to Wilson et al. (2002, p.193)

CRM is a concept that enables an organization to tailor specific products or

services to each individual customer. In the most advanced scenario, CRM may

be used to create a personalized, one-to-one experience that will give the

individual customer a sense of being cared for, thus opening up new marketing

opportunities based on the preferences and history of the customer.

Yet, Dyche (2001, p4) has stated that ―the infrastructure that enables the delineation

of and increase in customer value, and the correct means by which to motivate

valuable customers to remain loyal – indeed, to buy again.‖

Day and Van Den Bulte (2002) has defined

CRM as a cross-functional process for achieving a continuous dialogue with

customers, across all their contact and access points, with personalized

treatment for the most valuable customers, to increase customer retention and

the effectiveness of marketing initiatives.

Kincaid (2002, p.34) gave a broad definition ―CRM is the strategic use of

information, processes, technology and people to manage the customer‘s

relationships with your company (marketing, sales, services, and support) across the

whole customer life cycle.‖

According to Peelen (2005, p.6) ―CRM is a business strategy and therefore more than

a functional strategy alone. It affects the organization as a whole: marketing, IT,

service, logistics, finance, production and development, HR, management etc.‖

Bose and Sugamaran (2003, p.4) mentioned that

CRM is about managing customer knowledge to better understand and serve

them. It is an umbrella concept that places the customer at the center of an

organization. Customer service is an important component of CRM; however

7

CRM is also concerned with coordinating customer relations across all

business functions, points of interaction and audiences.

According to Magaña and Whitehead (2010), a CRM is: a system that manages

information and processes pertaining to the relationship and interactions with your

customers.

Ghahfarokhi and Zakaria (2009) stated that CRM is a business philosophy that

supplies a vision to your organization in order to deal with your customers.

All the above definitions prove that, CRM is an immaculate concept to reach,

understand and meet customers‘ needs by tailoring specific products or services to

each singular customer, and also thanks to CRM, organizations can show importance

to customers by including them at the center of the system. Moreover, CRM provides

organizations the chance to use data to realize the needs of customers by a cross-

functional process.

The world and technology have been changing day by day; organizations must take

into account customers‘ behaviors which have been changing year over year. The

ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus (n.d.) said that ―the only thing that is immune

to change is change itself.‖ Thus, CRM is not a static concept. Greenberg (2001)

stated that in order to understand CRM, you must also understand the changing

nature of the customers because customers are not what they used to be.

As seen formerly, the power definitely belongs to customers, therefore organizations

especially small and medium enterprises should pay more attention to customer

relationship.

2.3. Overview of Customer Relationship Management

One of the world‘s most respected thinkers on management – Peter Drucker (1993)

said that ―the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.‖ It is similar to

the objectives of CRM. At this point it is worth mentioning the objectives and

possible benefits of CRM. The following presents a brief look of the objectives and

possible benefits of CRM.

8

By using CRM, an organization can achieve five main goals. (―Customer

Relationship,‖ 2002). These goals are listed below.

1. Customer identification: Thanks to CRM, organizations can ascertain gainful

customers. When organizations isolate the gainful customers from the others,

one can make sure that organization can focus on them and profitability can

be increased.

2. Data management: CRM makes the data management easier. CRM software

warrants compatibility among distinct types of software that are used in

different departments in organizations. Therein, someone who is authorized

to login into the system can login and reach the data.

3. Success measurement: CRM supplies a right way of measuring success.

Organizations which obtain new customers cannot determine who or what

assured the customers to do business with them. By using CRM,

organizations can get this information.

4. Analysis speed: CRM facilitates processing, analyzing and reviewed. This

speed allows companies to make a response quickly to the changes into the

market.

5. Return on investment: Another objective of CRM is to have high return on

investment. As Tie (2003) mentioned, a CRM solution ensures a better ROI

prediction.

According to Nguyen et al. (2007), the possible benefits in terms of competitive

advantages are increases in customer loyalty, superior service, superior information

gathering and knowledge sharing supplied by using CRM system. Swift (2001) adds

the following benefits that increased customer profitability and evaluation of

customer profitability.

A survey aiming to know why companies adopt CRM has been achieved in North

America and Europe in August 2009, by Forrester Research (Band, 2010). It includes

200 survey participants for Business to Business (B2B) and 82 survey participants

for Business to Consumer (B2C). For B2B, transaction about products and services

consists between organizations; as opposed to it, B2C consists between organization

9

and a consumer. B2B and B2C enterprises stated that they use CRM in order to

firstly improve the customer loyalty and attract new customers (see Figure 2.1)

Figure 2.1: Customer management goals (Band, 2010)

10

Chapter 3

Small and Medium Enterprises


The objective of the chapter is to supply definitions (by EU, WBI and Turkey) of

SMEs and general information.

3.2. Defining Small and Medium Enterprise

The definition of SMEs enhances differences among countries. The most determinant

variable is the number of employees.

3.2.1. The European Union Definition

SMEs play a central role in the European economy. They are a major source of

entrepreneurial skills, innovation and employment. In European Union (EU) of 25

countries, some 23 million SMEs supply around 75 million jobs and represent 99%

of all enterprises. (European Union [EU], 2003)

The EU Commission has published a user guide in all community in order to

facilitate the application of the definition. In this guide, enterprises are categorized in

three parts that are about staff, headcount and financial ceilings determining

enterprise categories. (European Union Commission Recommendation [EUCR],

2003)

1. The category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is made

up of enterprises which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an

annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, and/or an annual balance

sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million.

11

2. Within the SME category, a small enterprise is defined as an enterprise which

employs fewer than 50 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual

balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 10 million.

3. Within the SME category, a microenterprise is defined as an enterprise which

employs fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual

balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million.

Enterprises Persons Turnover Balance sheet total

Medium-sized < 250 ≤ 50 million € ≤ 43 million €

Small < 50 ≤ 10 million € ≤ 10 million €

Micro < 10 ≤ 2 million € ≤ 2 million €

Table 3.1: Definition of SMEs of the EU

There are three criteria which help to determine whether accompany is medium sized

or small or micro enterprise. These are

• staff headcount,

• annual turnover,

• annual balance sheet.

One of the priorities of the European Commission is to support SMEs in order to

overcome the unemployment and to supply economic growth. Many of these SMEs

have lots of difficulties in obtaining money, especially when they are started up.

3.2.2. The World Bank Institute Definition

The definition provided by the World Bank Institute (WBI) (2004), is below:


Medium-sized < 300 ≤ 15 million US$ ≤ 15 million US$

Small < 50 ≤ 3 million US$ ≤ 3 million US$

Micro < 10 ≤ 100.000 US$ ≤ 100.000 US$

Table 3.2: Definition of SMEs of the WBI

12

3.2.3. In Turkey

In Turkey, according to the regulation which was published in the Turkish

Official Journal (2005), SMEs are defined as:

Micro Enterprise: There are less than 10 persons and turnover value and

balance sheet value are less than 1.000.000 TL

Small Enterprise: There are less than 50 persons and turnover value and

balance sheet value are less than 5.000.000 TL

Medium Sized Enterprise: There are less than 250 persons and turnover value

and balance sheet value are less than 25.000.000 TL


Medium-sized < 250 ≤ 25 million TL ≤ 25 million TL

Small < 50 ≤ 5 million TL ≤ 5 million TL

Micro < 10 ≤ 1 million TL ≤ 1 million TL

Table 3.3: Definition of SMEs of Turkey

3.3. Overview of Small and Medium Enterprise

Recently, SMEs have become a common form of business organization and the main

creators of jobs in the world. SMEs account for more than 95 percent of all firms in

many countries and they play a major role in world economies (Chiao, Yang, & Yu,

2006, p.475). Thus, SME are accepted as centers of employment, innovation and

growth.

According to Günter Verheugen who is Member of the European Commission, the

engine of the European economy is SMEs. Verheugen (EU, 2003, p.3) said that

―They are an essential source of jobs, create entrepreneurial spirit and innovation in

the EU and are thus crucial for fostering competitiveness and employment.‖

In order to understand the performance of SMEs in Turkey, we can look at the

survey from the Turkish Statistical Institute (as cited in Hurriyet Daily Newspaper,

2011). In 2009, Turkey‘s overall exports‘ 60 percent carried out by SMEs and 40

percent of imports were brought into the country by SMEs.

13

Wright, Bisson and Duffy (2011) have founded surprising results about the

technology support and IT systems in Turkey (206 SMEs answered to this question).

Wright et al. (2011, p.5) have stated that ―52.4% stated that they did not use any

systems at all to manage their competitive information, saying that it was in their

minds and they relied on their memory.‖ According to their survey, the status of

technology support is ―Simple Technology Support‖ which means ―the company is

just using the free web such as a search engine or looking at some web sites which

require no specific knowledge. Also use general office software such as

spreadsheet.‖ In addition to this, the status of IT systems is ―Dismissive‖ which

means ―does not use any IT system to manage competitive information‖. In the light

of this survey, the status of SMEs in Turkey is obvious, the awareness and use of

technology is very low. This strengthens the importance of this thesis topic.

3.4. Which Enterprises Need CRM Software?

For very small companies that have less than ten employees, it is possible to know

customers but for larger companies, definitely a software support is needed to store

the necessary information that can be about customer‘s product choice, the price of

sold products, etc. Unfortunately in Turkey, according to Wright et al. (2011), 52.4%

of respondents of their study to manage their competitive information, they relied on

their memory.

Therefore, if SMEs want to survive and retain their customers and want to know

customers individually, organizations have to implement a CRM system.

3.5. Why are CRM Software Important for SMEs?

In Turkey, for SMEs, having all rights of commercial CRM software (such as

Microsoft CRM) is too expensive. For example the cost of Microsoft Dynamics

CRM server which is recommended for companies with more than five users is

$5.823 (Purchase Microsoft CRM, 2010). At the same time, the OS sector has

become more credible. The OS CRM can be preferred especially by start-up

organizations and SMEs. As Lang and Calantone (1997) pointed out, SMEs differ

from large companies mainly in their limited financial abilities affecting their

information-seeking practices.

14

To survive in the local and global market, focusing on customers is a key factor for

organizations which are small, medium and large. In addition, acquiring a new

customer is five times more than the cost of retaining an old customer (Payne, 2002).

That‘s why customer retention is important for SMEs because of their limited

resources (Baumeister, 2002).

As Ramdani, Kawalek, and Lorenzo (2009) have underlined if SMEs want to

compete effectively and beyond that survive in the global market, they have to

implement CRM. There are six reasons to implement CRM (Xu & Walton, 2005).

Reasons for implementing CRM

Improving customer satisfaction level

Retaining existing customers

Improving customer lifetime value

Providing better strategic information to sales, marketing, finance etc.

Attracting new customers

Cost savings

Table 3.4: Reasons for implementing CRM (Xu & Walton, 2005, p.959)

A study done by Kimiloglu and Zarali (2009) shows that over 72 businesses in

Turkey, companies that succeed in adapting CRM into their companies, have shown

significant improvement on the issues below:

Reliability of business process

Speed

Customer satisfaction

Brand image

Revenue

Effectiveness

Technology utilization

Considering all the information in this chapter, in my opinion there are three

important characteristics that CRM system can offer to an organization.

1. The system tracks every interaction and transaction that describes the

customer‘s purchase, interest and demands for an organization. Also the

15

system can report the changing needs of the customer, so one will be

aware of the needs of customer and by this way will let the organization

to react effectively to the change.

2. CRM systems collect data about the service requests, customer

information, order entry, billing etc.

3. Thanks to CRM, organizations can measure the performance.

While CRM software is vital for SMEs, due to limited budget a large number of

SMEs have difficulties in implementing such solutions. Thus, a potential solution is

open source software.

3.6. Different Types of CRM Software

OSS has the capacity to compete with traditional commercial software.

3.6.1. Commercial

According to Parsons and Oja (2010, p.149) ―commercial software is typically sold

in computer stores or at Web sites. Although you buy this software, you actually

purchase only the right to use it under the terms of the software license.‖ When one

purchases commercial software, everything is designed in respect to general needs.

Moreover, purchasing commercial software makes organizations dependent on the

vendor for the maintenance (Hall, 2008).

3.6.2. Open Source

According to Parsons and Oja (2010, p.150) ―open source software may be sold or

distributed free of charge in compiled from, but it must, in every case, also include

the source code.‖ When one obtains OSS, one can customize everything according to

the organization‘s needs.

In the next chapter, we provide background information about OSS and the market

status.

16

Chapter 4

Open Source Software


The objective of the chapter is to supply information about OSS by illuminating

relevant issues of OSS.

4.2. Defining Open Source Software

According to Hansen, Köhntopp, and Pfitzmann (2002, p.461), OSS means that ―the

source code is distributed along with the executable program. It is free to use. It

includes a license allowing anyone to modify and redistribute the software.‖

Today, there is no strict definition of open source but many accept that one software

can be declared as open source software if it follows the ten criteria in the definition

of open source which is published by Open Source Initiative (OSI, 2002). As

Hedgebeth (2007) and Hansen et al. (2002) underlined the OSI is a non-profit

industry recognized approval authority and the aim of OSI is to enhance the

awareness about OSS.

According to OSI, OSS is not only free access to the source code, it is more than

that. OSI prefers a set of specific criteria instead of one definition. As Kuehnel

(2008) has mentioned, a software program can only be considered open source, if it

fulfils all of the ten prerequisites of the open source definition. There are some

versions of open source definition which are published by OSI but the latest version

is 1.9.

17

The 10 criteria for being an OSS (for the details, see Appendix 1) are:

1. Free redistribution

2. Source code

3. Derived works

4. Integrity of the author's source Code

5. No discrimination against persons or groups

6. No discrimination against fields of endeavor

7. Distribution of license

8. License must not be specific to a product

9. License must not restrict other software

10. License must be technology-neutral

These prerequisites show the main differences between open source and commercial

software.

OSS provides users free rights to run programs for any purpose. You do not have to

pay royalties to another developer. Yet, you can modify the programs. The power of

OSS has been coming from that point. You can modify the programs for your special

needs. Open source software can be modified in terms of needs and can be simplified

by software developers. In addition, OSS can be used on mobile phones and

computers as well and in many other technological areas. There is no limitation. OSS

can be used by single and all types of corporations.

We define OSS as software whose source codes are opened to public and be

modified according to the demand. The characteristics are that is it is free, fast and

secured.

4.3. Overview of Open Source Software

OSS has existed since the 1960‘s (Weber, 2004) but only in the last 10 years, it has

started to be known into the market. In 1983, the Free Software Foundation was built

by Richard Stallman (Hars & Ou, 2002) and the ‗Open Source‘ (OS) term was

introduced in 1998 (Raymond, 1998). After that, more and more companies started to

be interested in OSS.

18

4.3.1. Market Status

While open source is mature in many areas, we cannot say the same thing for its

applications. The operating systems, application servers and security systems can be

deemed as mature. The Netcraft web server survey was achieved in May 2010.

Figure 4.1: Total for Active Servers Across All Domains (June 2000 - May 2010)

(Netcraft‘s survey, 2010)

Developer April 2010 Percent May 2010 Percent Change

Apache 44,965,707 53,38% 46,608,654 55,36% 1.98

Microsoft 15,211,533 18,06% 14,977,560 17,79% -0.27

Google 11,544,903 13,71% 10,064,872 11,95% -1,75

nginx 7,293,935 8,66% 7,387,460 8,77% 0.11

lighttpd 330,506 0,39% 339,862 0,40% 0.01

Table 4.1: Internet Web Server Market (Netcraft‘s survey, 2010)

According to Netcraft‘s survey (2010), there are five major web servers and the

survey shows that the Apache Web Server is dominant in the Internet web server

market. Microsoft‘s web server is commercial and the others are OS.

On the other hand, Eclipse (2010), which began as a Java integrated development

environment (IDE) but has evolved into larger and more diverse open source

19

community which is well-established, made a survey about primary operating

systems for software development. In this survey, one can see three periods (2007,

2009 and 2010). Again, it shows the increase of open source. OSS is being enthroned

because of the cost of commercial software and most importantly commercial

software make organizations and individuals dependent on vendors.

Figure 4.2: Primary Operating System for Software Development

(Eclipse (2010, p.10))

In total there were 1,948 responded and 1,696 completed the whole survey. The

survey‘s scope was from 2007 until 2010. There were two countries that had higher

rates than other countries: Germany which had 25.7% rate and France which had

15.4% rate. In 2007, approximately 74% of the selected developers were using

Windows as their primary development operating system. After 3 years, it dropped to

58%. Thus, developers try to shift from Microsoft Windows to Linux.

20

According to Hammond (2010), organizations plan to implement or expand the use

of following software technologies. The research question was: ―What are your firms

plans to implement or expand its use of the following software technologies in the

next 12 months?‖. 2227 software decision-makers in the North American and

European enterprises and Small and Medium Business (SMB) participated to the

survey. And the results show the importance of OSS (see Figure 4.3).

Expand / Upgrade – 13%

Implementing / Implemented – 17%

Piloting – 10%

Interested / Considering – 25%

Not Interested / Don‘t know – 34%

Decreasing and Removing – 1%

Figure 4.3: Adopting OSS was an important technology goal

According to this study, the interest in OSS has been growing. In the light of growing

open source sector, we provide some popular open source software and their

purpose.

21

Name Purpose

Linux Operating System

Apache Web Server

GCC C and C++ compiler

Mysql Relational Database System

Mozilla Firefox Web Browser

Perl Programming Language

Open Office Office Productivity Suites

Tomcat Application Server

Pidgin Instant Messenger

Table 4.2: Popular open source software

Below, one can see the ranges of their market shares globally.

Open Source

Software

Type of Application High

Estimate

Low

Estimate

Apache Web Server 65% 55%

Sendmail Email Client 76% 42%

Linux Server Server Operating System 35% 28%

MySQL Database 33% 29%

Firefox Internet Browser 27% 10%

Linux Workstation Client Operating System 3% 1%

Open Office Office Productivity Suite 4% 2%

Table 4.3: The market shares of OSS into the global market

(Nagy, Yassin, & Bhattacherjee, 2010)

Table 4.3 shows that the OS market is large and grows for some applications such as

Web servers (such as Apache), server operating systems (such as Linux Server) and

database servers (such as MySQL) etc. On the other hand, it is behind its commercial

substitute in other domains such as office productivity software (such as Open

Office) and client operating systems (such as Linux Workstation).

As Long (2006) mentioned an organization could invest in an OSS project and use

the freely available software to increase their market share in a particular business

sector.

22

4.3.1.1. In Turkey

Many countries such as Germany, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, China, Korea, and India

have adopted OSS and are part of their information society strategy. For reasons of

security and saving, the European Union, UNESCO and World Bank suggest the

development of OSS.

In Turkey, there are sporadic examples open source projects. In 2007, the part of the

Ministry of Defense - the Military Recruitment Division – announced that it was

switching to the Pardus Linux on all of their 4.500 desktops and exactly more than

five hundred servers (Lewis, 2008).

Instead of importing ready solutions, using OSS in Turkey means that one invests in

Turkey. Firstly, OSS reduces the cost since there are no licenses, supports the local

developers and then companies; yet, it increases the competitiveness of Turkey.

Under these circumstances, the knowledge of OSS has been understood day by day

in Turkey. According to Şule (2009) who is the assistant general manager of Sun

Microsystems, in Turkey there have been active communities about OSS day by day.

There is a worldwide survey that is made by Red hat which is the world‘s leading

open source technology solutions provider. This survey aims to create a tool to

quickly compare countries based on their open source activities and environment

(Redhat, 2009). According to Redhat (2009) activity is defined as ―an index which

measures the amount of open source happening today. It tends to be made up of

concrete factors, such as existing open source and open standards policies and

number of OSS users or producers, such as Linux and Google Summer of Code.‖ and

the other one environmental factors are‖ more speculative. Even a country that does

not have a high degree of current penetration of open source may have a high number

of internet users and information technology patents. These factors may indicate a

favorable environment for open source software to take hold. Still, the correlation

between a country‘s score on the activity and its environment is quite high.‖

23

Figure 4.4: Activity Map (RedHat, 2009)

Figure 4.5: Environmental Map (RedHat, 2009)

From these 2 figures, one could see there are still rooms for improvements in Turkey

as for activities Turkey is ranked 57 over 74 countries and concerning the

environment it is ranked 46. In this survey the activity overall score of Germany is 3

and environment is 16. France is 1 for activity and it s environment is the 15th.

24

4.4. Why Should One Develop Open Source Software?

Users and software developers pay attention to OSS because it gives them economic

advantages. Yet, an OSS can have many developers from different cultures and

countries so the development and the spreading of software are easier. Computer

Economics (2005) released a survey. They conducted a survey of visitors to its

website regarding the perceived advantages in the use of OSS. The results are

surprising although there is not a scientific sample. They collected the answers to

one question which had five possible answers about the advantages of open source.

The question was ―What is the most important advantage in the use of open source

among these items below?‖

Lower total cost of ownership

Reduced dependence on software vendors

Easier to customize

Higher level of security

Do not see a significant advantage

The results of the survey are shown in the chart below (see Figure 4.6).

This survey reported that:

3% of respondents chose ―higher level of security‖.

17% of respondents chose ―easier to customize‖.

14% of respondents thought that open source had no significant advantages.

22% of respondents chose ―lower total cost of ownership‖.

44% of respondents chose ―reduced dependence on software vendors‖.

25

Figure 4.6: What is the most important advantage in the use of open source?

(Computer Economics, 2005)

According to this survey, IT decision makers gave importance to ―reduced

dependence on software vendors‖. Because everyone wants to be free and

organizations want as well. If organizations are independent, there is no edge except

for them. Therefore, most of respondents chose ―the reduced dependence on software

vendors‖.

4.4.1. Comparison of Commercial vs. Open Source CRM Software

As mentioned before, OSS has a large number of advantages for SMEs. Below, the

table summarizes the differences between commercial and OS ones.

OPEN SOURCE COMMERCIAL

Free licensing Pay for licensing

Ability for full customization Customization on client pattern

Retaining control of user‘s data Control over clients

Many features for free Best features or all features for pay

Support free Hand-holding and follow-up

Used by the developer for advertising Used by the developer for profit

Improvement along with good

communication with users Spying on the users

Full access Restricting access

Free will upgrades Imposed upgrades

Lack of project support Full support

Projects may "die on the vine" Contractual obligations and schedules

Table 4.4: Open Source vs. Commercial (Piroscâ et al., 2009)

26

In order to appraise the user-side evaluation of open source software systems,

Forrester Consulting (2007) made a survey which includes 486 firms. Yet, another

was made by Gartner (as citied Gyula & Andras, 2009, p.913) which includes 300

firms. According to these surveys the main benefits of OSS are:

Cost of ownership is lower

Use without constraints

Rapid implementation of new projects

Lower dependence to the vendors

Yet, the figure below enhances the differences between OSS and commercial

software.

Figure 4.7 Software development between open source and proprietary

(commercial) projects (Piroscâ et al., 2009, p.68)

27

4.5. Open Source Software and Small and Medium Enterprises

It is evident that today companies have started to pay attention to reduce the

licensing fees of commercial software. As mentioned before, there are many benefits

of open source CRM for companies especially for the SMEs. Many companies

realized the OSS stunning cost savings and benefits. For example years and years

ago, Amazon.com cut technology spending from $71 million to $54 million (it is

approximately $17 million) only by switching to open source applications (Redhat,

2001). Another fascinating story is the F5 story. F5 is the market share leader in

Application Delivery Controllers (Skorupa & Nhat, 2010), with revenues of over

$882 million in 2010. The customers of F5 include 41 of the top 50 Fortune 500

companies, more than 16,000 organizations and 15 of the world‘s top 15 commercial

banks. According to Mr. Butterfield who is a development manager of F5 using

MySQL with partitioning, they were able to take their products from a maximum of

3,500 records per second to 22,000 records per second. This is basically 6 times more

performance. Last example is a financial institution in Japan. Shinsei standardized its

CRM system on MySQL and used one OS CRM which is SugarCRM. As a result,

Shinsei successfully developed an entirely new enterprise system in one fourth of the

time and by saving 90% of the cost of using legacy mainframes and commercial

packaged software.

In Turkey, SMEs are very important for the economy like other countries (Wright et

al., 2011). Although SMEs are the engine of Turkey‘s economy, they have still

technological problems. In order to indicate the increase of SMEs in Turkey, there

are two statistics done by Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TUIK) on 2002 and 2009. On

2002 statistics, there were 1.858.191 organizations and approximately 1.856.340 of

them were SMEs. That is to say, SMEs form 99.6% of whole organizations. On

2009, there were 3.222.133 organizations. SMEs were representing 99.9 % of all

organizations in Turkey. From 2002 to 2009, the number of organizations increased

1.75 times.Below, the table 4.5 shows the proportion of enterprises which have

access to the internet and their usage of computer.

28

Reference

Period

Size group

Total 10-49 50-249 250+

Computer

Internet

access

Computer

Internet

access

Computer

Internet

access

Computer

Internet

access

(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)

2005 87,8 80,4 86,0 78,0 96,3 92,3 99,8 99,2

General 2007 88,7 85,4 87,0 83,3 95,0 93,6 99,3 99,2

2008 90,6 89,2 89,3 87,5 95,3 95,0 98,4 98,1

2009 90,7 88,8 89,5 87,5 97,7 96,9 99,3 99,0


economic activity and size group - I (TUIK, 2010)

In this table, ―general‖ integrates the following types of companies: manufacturing,

construction, wholesale and retail trade, hotels-camping sites and other provision of

short-stay accommodation, transport, storage and communication, real estate, renting

and business activities, motion picture and video activities- radio and television

activities, other monetary intermediation and other credit granting, life insurance and

non-life insurance and these titles from economic activity (Statistical Classification

of Economic Activities in The European Community [NACE], 2002)

Reference

Period

Size group

Total 10-49 50-249 250+

Computer

Internet

access

Computer

Internet

access

Computer

Internet

access

Computer

Internet

access

(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)

General 2010 92,3 90,9 91,3 89,7 97,0 96,9 98,5 98,4


economic activity and size group - II (TUIK, 2010)

In 2010, ―general‖ corresponds to manufacturing, electricity, gas and steam, water

supply, sewerage and waste management, construction, wholesale and retail trade;

repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, transportation and storage, accommodation

and food service activities, information and communication, real estate activities,

29

professional, scientific and support activities, administrative and support activities,

repair of computers, financial and insurance activities and these titles from economic

activity. (NACE 2, 2008)

As one can see, the rates of using computers and having access to the internet have

increased. If one knows that the majority of these companies use commercial

software, there is a tremendous budget that companies allocate for purchasing IT

products and services. According to Bulmuş, Oktay, and Törüner (1990) the source

of problems is behind the SMEs‘ capital in Turkey. Kyaw (2008) has underlined that

the financing problem of SMEs is one of the biggest constraints. Although Bulmuş et

al. mentioned this problem 21 years ago, the situation is almost the same all around

the world. Entrepreneurs start their business with a little capital and they have to use

this capital for investments and marketing studies. At least, for financial budgeting

problem, SMEs can choose OS CRM software.

Let‘s have a look at a research that shows that the percentage of companies of

minimum $50 million of turnover which use OSS. Yet, they state their reasons for

using the OSS (see Table 4.7).

Reason Percentage

Reduce cost of commercial packaged software 74 %

Reduce cost of custom software 66 %

Lower support and maintenance costs of commercial packaged

software

49 %

Higher-quality, ore secure software 47 %

Reduce computer hardware costs 44 %

Reduce dependence on commercial packages software 44 %

Build custom systems faster 38 %

Create software standards across departments, functions, and/or

business units or divisions

38 %

Need for functions not available in commercial packaged software 37 %

Interest buy technologists in gaining new knowledge and skills 32 %

Table 4.7 Why organizations are using OSS (Walli, Gynn, & Rotz, 2005, p.6)

IT became more important for organizations in order to do their business. The cost of

software is the biggest part of the IT budget for organizations. It includes initial

costs, upgrades, maintenance, support, consultant and other services (Walli et al.,

30

2005). Unlike big companies, SMEs did not choose open source software to reduce

the costs.

My personal experience showed that many SMEs in Turkey do not know even what

OS CRM software is. Some of these SMEs do not know how to choose the software.

In addition, some of these SMEs have traditional management, so there is no chance

to be able to change the process of doing business. Some SMEs do not know the

benefits of open source CRM and CRM as well. This strengthens the importance of

this thesis topic.

As mentioned before, SMEs are very important for economies as they are the most

important job creators. At the same time, customers are more stringent, the

competition is global. And, they often do not have the skills and/or budget to acquire

the resources on the market to analyze customers‘ needs scientifically. That‘s why

OS can be a solution.

31

Chapter 5

Methods to Evaluate Software


The objective of the chapter is to supply information about evaluation methods of

software by illuminating relevant issues of such methods. This chapter is organized

as following. General information about evaluation methods such as Rowley‘s

criteria, Dengate‘s criteria, ISO/IEC and Chaffey and Wood‘s criteria. Moreover, the

selection of suitable criteria for OSS evaluation will be handled.

5.2. Evaluation Methods

According to Rowley (1993), general criteria for software selection was about cost,

lifetime and life history, originator, supplier, support, maintenance, technical

considerations and compatibility, ease of use, interface and integration. From

Dengate‘s (2009) point of view, in order to choose a suitable CRM solution, the

general factors are functionality and characteristics of solutions such as support and

documentation, the recording of inventory, the campaign of sales and marketing

support and customization can be considered. The most accepted definition is the

ISO/IEC 9126 standardization. The ISO/IEC 9126 defines a quality model for

software products. The ISO/IEC 9126 standard helps to clarify quality attributes and

provides guidance for revising the standard (Jung, Kim & Chung, 2004).

There are different types of software quality models in software engineering such as

McCall‘s quality model, Boehm‘s quality model, ISO/IEC 9126 quality model etc.

Jamwal (2010, p.23) said that ―the ISO 9126 quality model is the most useful one

since it has been built based on an international consensus and agreement from all

32

the country members of the ISO organization.‖ Theoretically, the ISO/IEC 9126

seems well suited for software quality (Suryn, Georgiadou, & Ing, 2006). Yet, Chua

and Dyson (2004) proposed the ISO / IEC 9126 Model as a useful tool for evaluating

system. The ISO/IEC 9126 outlines a uniform framework well-suited for the

evaluation of quality features (Carvallo & Franch, 2006). Therein, I have chosen the

ISO/IEC 9126 to evaluate OS CRM systems. It includes six main criteria;

functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability and portability. Yet,

the study sought to extend that model by gathering suitable criteria from Chaffey and

Wood‘s (2005).

5.2.1. ISO/IEC 9126

In order to make a standard to have a common language in 1985, they developed the

ISO/IEC 9126. The ISO/IEC 9126 was issued in 1991 and revised in 2001 in four

parts (ISO/IEC 9126-1 to 9126-4) ISO/IEC 9126 is the software product evaluation

standard from the International Organization for Standardization / the International

Electrical Technical Commission.

Four main parts of the ISO/IEC 9126 standard

Part 1 – Software Engineering – Product quality – ―Quality model‖

Part 2 – Software Engineering – Product quality – ―External metrics‖

Part 3 – Software Engineering – Product quality – ―Internal metrics‖

Part 4 – Software Engineering – Product quality – ―Quality in use metrics‖

The quality model is mentioned in the first part of the ISO/IEC 9126. This part

contains two quality models for the internal/external quality and quality in-use.

The external / internal software quality model contains six main characteristics (see

Figure 5.1)

33

Figure 5.1 ISO / IEC 9126 (ISO, n.d.)

The second, third and fourth parts of the ISO/IEC 9126 contains huge sets of metrics.

5.2.2. Chaffey and Woods Criteria

Chaffey and Wood (2005) states that when selecting a software which will be

installed into an organization, there are lots of criteria to be considered. Yet, they use

nine main criteria that are used to compare software from different vendors:

1. Functionality

2. Ease of use

3. Performance

4. Scalability

5. Compatibility or interoperability

6. Extensibility

7. Stability or reliability

8. Security

9. Support

34

5.3. Selection of Criteria

In light of the ISO/IEC 9126, Chaffey and Wood‘s study and other studies that I we

mentioned above such as McCall‘s quality model, we determined below criteria to

build the most robust and exhaustive model to evaluate the CRM OSS. While we

were choosing criteria, we gathered ISO/IEC 9126 and Chaffey and Wood‘s criteria

together and chose the criteria which does not change relatively according to user‘s

computer capabilities and made the below list.

5.3.1. Functionality

Functionality is about the attributes of the software. This criterion describes how well

the application meets business needs; in other words the capability of the software in

order to provide functions that meet business needs.

A CRM should include Sales Force Automation, Marketing Automation, Customer

Service and Support, Reporting.

Sales Force Automation (SFA) is an information system used in CRM systems in

order to help mechanize sales functions. SFA tools chasing contacts and activities

that automatically record all the stages in a sales process. It helps the managers in

terms of understanding the strengths and weaknesses of organization, creating

competitive advantage by reducing costs, increasing sales revenue and increasing

market share, identifying the customers, understanding customers and even

developing new products.

Marketing Automation allows the design, execution and management of campaigns.

Customer Service and Support supplies the organization understanding the demand

and complaint, and the process of these services is supplied.

Reporting is another powerful ability of CRM. Thanks to reporting and analytics,

organizations can view and analyze customers‘ activities. One of the main success

factors is reporting. So the data captured by the system should be chosen correctly.

35

According to Davies et al. (2009), feature sets are focused on delivering a suite of

core SFA, marketing automation and service automation tools.

5.3.2. Ease of Use

Chen and Barnes (2007) have empirically found that ease of use and usefulness

significantly affects adaptation intentions. Ease of use is one of the most important

factors in determining the acceptance and use of information systems. Every

information system requires time to know how to use it, but a useful system should

require a minimum of time (Chaffey & Wood, 2005). Also McGovern (2011) has

claimed that ease of use supplies competitive advantages to organizations.

5.3.3. Performance

According to Chaffey and Wood (2005), performance can be measured by how long

the user waits to retrieve data, calculate or screen display. In fact, performance

depends on the power of the computer. Also, efficiency criteria are related to the

capability of the software product to supply suitable performance. That is to say,

performance and efficiency criteria are relative and they depend on user computer‘s

capability. The value of Random Access Memory (RAM) which supplies space for

one‘s computer to read and write data to be accessed by the Central Processing Unit

(CPU) and the speed of CPU can directly affect to performance. Thus, this criterion

cannot be effective for this software comparison.

5.3.4. Scalability

Scalability describes how a system can work in higher workloads when the

company‘s size grows. In this study scalability is up to company‘s size. According to

Williams and Smith (2004), scalability is one of the most important quality attributes

of today‘s software systems.

5.3.5. Compatibility

This term refers to how easy it is to integrate the software with other applications.

For instance does the CRM have import / export features?

36

5.3.6. Extensibility

Extensibility describes adding new functions or features to the software. This

criterion is about adding new modules that can be from the original vendor or other

vendor.

5.3.7. Stability or Reliability

The whole software applications from a calculator to huge automation applications

can have errors or bugs. Applications vary in the number of times they fail,

depending on how well they have been tested since they were first introduced. To

learn the stability or the reliability of software, it should be installed on some

computers to see the incidents and one should get the feedback of several users. So,

this criterion isn‘t within the scope of this study.

5.3.8. Security

Security is about the capability of the software to prevent one unauthorized person to

be able to reach information and data. Different types of users can be at different

levels of access rights.

5.3.9. Support

Support includes documentation, training, bug fixing, general help and discussion.

The developers and the users of communities who communicate over the Internet,

share requests and developments of the software. Yet, according to Golden (2005,

p21), ―one of the most important aspects of open source is the community.‖

5.3.10. Portability

The capability of the software to be transferred from one environment to another.

Generally, users demands same functionality on the whole spectrum of systems

available (Bell, 1998). Portability can be examined in terms of operating system

dependence, system requirements and supported browsers.

37

5.3.11. Customization

Product configuration supplies users to customize products to the organization‘s

requirements. Customizable products have vital place in markets because of the

changing nature of customers‘ needs. In order to meet the expectations of customers,

customizable products are needed.

5.3.12. Internationalization

Internationalization is an important unit while comparing software because it

provides multilingual software which means that the software can be understood by

more users. However, Hussein, Engelmann, Schroeter, and Meinzer (2004, p.133)

have stated ―the importance of internationalization comes from its benefits such as

addressing a broader audience, making the software applications more accessible,

easier to use, more flexible to support and providing users with more consistent

information.‖ Considering the importance of internationalization, we have decided to

examine the internationalization of OS CRM software.

Therein, we have selected the following criteria to be able to compare the OSS:

1. Functionality

2. Ease of use

3. Security

4. Extensibility

5. Customization

6. Compatibility

7. Portability

7.1. Operating System Dependence

7.2. System Requirements

7.3. Supported Browsers

8. Scalability

9. Support and Continuity

10. Internationalization

38

Chapter 6

Existing Open Source CRM Software


The objective of the chapter is to supply information about open source CRMs and to

give an idea to readers about the selected top open source CRMs.

6.2. Overview of Open Source CRM

In markets, with the rise of open source software, the number of OSS for CRM has

increased. Under these circumstances, to select suitable software for organizations is

being more and more complicated.

According to Hippel and Krogh (2002), Sourceforge.net is a single major supplier

and repository for open source software projects, Yet, in 2002 Sourceforge.net is

listing approximately 10.000 projects and had 300.000 registered users.

Sourceforge.net is a hosting provider that is the largest open source software

development dedicated web site in the world. That is to say, sourceforge.net provides

free hosting for open source software development projects. As Robles and

Gonzales-Barahona (2006) mentioned Sourceforge.net is the largest free software

development web-based platform. And, CDNetworks (2009) has claimed that the

largest OSS development website is SourceForge.net. In February 2009, it included

more than 230.000 software projects and had more than 2 million registered users.

Currently, it includes more than 300.000 projects. At the same time, according to

Alexa (2011) which is the well-known web information company‘s statistics,

Sourceforge.net is 152th

among 500 top sites all around the world (Top ten is:

Google, Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo, Live, Baidu, Wikipedia, Blogger, MSN,

39

Twitter). In order to determine the top 10 CRM OSS, Sourceforge.net was the

evident source.

According to Bruce, Robson and Spaven (2006), there were 89 CRM OSS in 2006.

In the first quarter of 2011, when I searched about CRM on Sourceforge.net, there

were exactly 687 results. The number of open source CRM software and its related

packages increased approximately 8 times in 5 years.

6.3. Top Ten Open Source CRM Software

When I have started to research the top 10 open source CRM, I have eliminated the

articles that were written before 2006 as in the IT field, it evolves very quickly

(Chaffey & White, 2011). Certainly, IT has been quickly changing and it will

continue (Benemati & Lederer, 2010). The following selections are below ordered

by date i.e.2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010.

6.3.1. Selection by Bruce et al

In the study of Bruce et al., (2006) a list of the most popular open source CRM

projects is provided by using Google page rankings and Sourceforge.net activity

measures.

Anteil

CentraView

Centric

Compiere

Daffodil

Hipergate

Ohioedge

Open For Business

OpenCRX

OpenSourceCRM

SourceTap

SugarCRM

Vtiger

40

They list 13 OS CRM which are the most popular in 2006 and at the same date

according to this journal, Sourceforge.net lists 89 projects about open source CRM.

6.3.2. Selection by Hakala

In the article of Hakala (2007), there are 10 top open sources CRM which are

selected from SourceForge. In 2011, Sourceforge.net lists 369 projects about open

source CRM.

SugarCRM

Splendid CRM

Centric CRM

Hipergate

Compiere

vTiger

CentraView

XRMS CRM

Cream CRM

Tustena CRM

6.3.3. Selection by Dengate

According to Dengate (2009), the most popular OS CRM software are the following:

SugarCRM

vTiger

Daffodil CRM

Centric CRM

Anteil CRM

SellWin CRM

6.3.4. Selection by Bucholtz

Bucholtz (2010) has selected the top 10 open source CRMs, according to utility,

developer communities, history and business models.

41

SugarCRM

vTiger

SplendidCRM

Xtuple

Concursive

Compiere

OpenTaps

CentraView

XRMS

CiviCRM

6.4. Determining the Top Ten Open Source CRM

6.4.1. Selected Software

In order to determine the top 10 open sources CRM to be compared, I have made a

research on online resources (especially on sourceforge.net) and I listed all CRM

software in terms of being the most 10 popular and the 10 most downloaded. Thus,

according to those operations and in the light of previous researches as mentioned, I

determined below the top 10 open source CRMs software:

1. vTiger

2. SugarCRM

3. Splendid

4. CentraView

5. Daffodil

6. Centric

7. Hipergate

8. Compiere

9. Tustena

10. OpenCRX

After selecting the top 10 open source CRM software, we need to compare them for

the needs of organizations especially for SMEs. In order to choose a suitable CRM

solution, there are some general factors that have to be considered. Next chapter, the

comparison and evaluation will be done.

42

Chapter 7

Evaluation and Comparison of Selected Software


In this chapter, we compare the CRM software by evaluating their functionality, ease

of use, security, extensibility, customization, compatibility, portability (operating

system dependence, system requirements, and supported browsers), scalability,

support and continuity and internationalization. Yet, we provide a comparison table

to allow a quick view of the main elements at a glance about selected 10 OS CRM.

Thus, we provide a detailed comparison of these software. Thereafter, one can find

the right approach to make the implementation easier.

7.2. Evaluation of Selected Software

In order to retrieve appropriate information about the selected software, we referred

to official web sites and their sourceforge.net pages. In every CRM section, there is a

―useful information‖ part to supply the reader with a quick understanding about that

CRM.

7.2.1. Vtiger CRM

7.2.1.1. Overview

According to Vtiger‘s web site, ―vtiger CRM is a free, full-featured, 100% Open

Source CRM software ideal for small and medium business, with low-cost product

support available to production users that need reliable support.‖

The aim of the Vtiger CRM is to provide one of the best, free OS CRM solution with

the lowest total cost of ownership and low support and customization costs to SMEs.

43

Vtiger seems to be a professional OS CRM solution at first glance. After providing

the useful information, the value of each evaluation criteria is given.

Useful information

Web site: http://www.vtiger.com/

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/vtigercrm/

Sourceforge registration date: 23.08.2004

Live demo: http://demo.vtiger.com/

User Interface: Web-based

Programming Language: JavaScript, PHP, Visual Basic

Statistics:

Sourceforge downloads: 2.665.986 (From registration date)

Top Country: United States (11% of downloader)

Top OS: Windows (75%)

7.2.1.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

The features of Vtiger CRM that supplies functionality listed below:

Sales Force Automation

Marketing Management Features

Customer Support and Service

Inventory Management

Activity Management

Security Management

Product Customization

Reports and Dashboards

2. Ease of use

Vtiger CRM supplies to users natural and comfortable interface. Every module is

placed in the menu tool bar carefully. At the same time, user can see the main

modules and the related modules. The Vtiger CRM user interface gives user

confidence because of being simple. One can deem it as easy to understand.

44

3. Security

Vtiger CRM supplies security and limited information sharing that depends on a

hierarchy. Moreover, in Vtiger CRM, there are some levels to define users.

Profile Level

Field Level

Module Level

Sharing Level Access

4. Extensibility

There are sets of add-ons for Vtiger CRM; these sets are developed by both the

Vtiger team and the Vtiger community. Below there is a list which shows add-ons.

Vtiger Outlook Plug-in

Vtiger Office Plug-in

Vtiger Thunderbird Extension

Vtiger Customer Portal

Vtiger Firefox Toolbar

Thanks to APIs (Application Programming Interface), Ginn (2011, p.46) has defined

―a particular set of rules and specifications that software programs can follow to

communicate with each other‖ that made by Vtiger, the integration with other

applications or to add new functionality is allowed in order to meet the organization

needs.

5. Customization

Vtiger CRM offers freedom to organizations in order to modify their installation in

terms of their needs. In the download section on the web site, there is the source code

of every edition and one can download it and customize it in order to meet one‘s

organization needs.

6. Compatibility

Vtiger CRM system can export all records related process of CRM such as contacts,

accounts. And the salesforce.com to Vtiger CRM, dynamics CRM to Vtiger CRM,

SugarCRM to Vtiger CRM data migration is possible.

45

7. Portability

7.1. Operating system dependence

It is portable on 32-bit MS Windows, All Portable Operating System Interface for

Unix (POSIX) (Linux / BSD / UNIX), Apple Mac OS Classic, OS X, Windows

Server 2003

7.2. System requirements

Databases: MySQL: version 4.1.x through 5.1.x

Web Server: version 2.0.40 or higher or Microsoft IIS 5 or higher

PHP: version 5.0.x through 5.2.x

7.3. Supported browsers

Firefox 2.x and above Internet Explorer (IE) 6 and 7, Google Chrome up to 4.1,

Safari

8. Scalability

According to Vtiger Team, Vtiger CRM software is ideal for small and medium

businesses. That is to say, according to the definitions of SMEs, the maximum limit

of Vtiger users is 250.

9. Support and continuity

In terms of training and documentation support, Vtiger is very accomplished. On

Vtiger‘s web site there are some resources that are about: How To‘s, installation

manuals, user manuals, admin manuals and add-on manuals. In terms of community

support, there are blogs and forums. There are installation support, language packs,

general discussions, feature requests and help forums.

Continuity is related with community activities and update frequencies. Below there

is the last 3 updates and their release dates.

Vtiger CRM 5.2.1 Release Date - November 16, 2010

Vtiger CRM 5.2.0 Release Date - September 28, 2010

Vtiger CRM 5.1.0 Release Date - July 22, 2009

46

The community concept of Vtiger is very advanced. There are blogs, community

portal, forums that are about help forums, installation support, general discussions

and feature requests. That is to say, the community of Vtiger is active. Indeed, in the

Vtiger forum there are 1590 topics and 4653 posts for 5.2.1 edition on the other hand

for the 5.1.0 there are 5076 topics and 16910 posts.


The Vtiger CRM supports multiple languages such as English, French, German,

Chinese (Simplified), Italian and Spanish. Vtiger CRM is used widely in lots of

countries such as United States, Russia, India, China and Germany with localization

available in over 15 languages. According to Sourceforge.net Vtiger statistics among

213 countries which downloaded Vtiger CRM, Turkey is 28th

.

7.2.2. Sugar CRM

7.2.2.1. Overview

According to the SugarCRM web site, ―SugarCRM is the world's leading provider of

open source customer relationship management (CRM) software.”

Sugar CRM allows the organizations independence of platform. Also business

processes, business applications and other solutions what the organization choose to

integrate to CRM is supported by Sugar CRM. After searching OS CRM on the web,

one can notice that Sugar CRM is one of the most known OS CRM. According to us,

the reason of this recognition is due to its design and facilities dedicated to be web-

based for SMEs.

Useful information

Web site: http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sugarcrm/


Live demo: http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/demo


Programming Language: PHP

Statistics:

Sourceforge downloads: 396.692 (From registration date)

Top Country: China (14% of downloaders)


47

7.2.2.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

The features of Sugar CRM that supplies functionality listed below:


Marketing Management Features

Project and Activity Management

Customer Support

Collaboration

Administration

Reporting

2. Ease of use

The appearance of Sugar CRM seems very professional. Indeed, thanks to the

shortcut bar, users are allowed to perform some common task in one click. Users can

assign tasks to short cut bar without ever leaving the existing screen. With the new

edition Sugar CRM is designed for a fast and simple learning. In our opinion, users

who work with this CRM software since many years might be affected.

3. Security

Sugar CRM supplies security which depends on access permissions. The

administrator can enable or disable the access to any sugar module. Yet, the user

cannot edit it. Moreover, on the access page the roles that have been assigned to the

user can be viewed.

4. Extensibility

There are sets of add-ons for SugarCRM. Below there is a list which shows add-ons:

Word Plug-in (2003, 2007)

Outlook Plug-in (2003, 2007, 2010)

Excel Plug-in (2007)

Lotus Notes 7.0, 8.0, 8.5

5. Customization

Sugar CRM enables you to tailor your installation according to your business needs.

The extension framework in Sugar CRM was created to help to implement the

customization of the existing modules or to create entirely new modules. In the Sugar

48

administrator screen which will appear if one enters the system with full

authorization, to expand the functionality of Sugar CRM, one can build new

modules, adding, removing, and changing themes and language packs. Customized

fields can be created and it is possible to edit dropdowns. Yet, the configuration of

tabs allows one to customize.

6. Compatibility

Sugar CRM system can import the records which are about CRM process such as

contacts, accounts and users.

Yet, Sugar CRM allows exporting transaction in Comma Separated Values (CSV)

formats to your machine. In order to open CSV format Open Office, Notepad and

some text editors can be used. In order to transport large amounts of data between

organizations or software applications which are not directly connected, CSV files

are generally used.

7. Portability


XP, 2003, 2008, Vista, Red Hat 4.x, 5.x (Advanced Server, Enterprise Server);

Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.1; Cent OS 4.x, 5.x

Mac OS x


Databases: My SQL 5.0x, 5.1, MSSQL-2005, 2008, 2008 R2, Oracle-9i, 10g

(Oracle is supported only for Sugar Enterprise)

Web Server: Apache 2.0, 2.2, IIS 6.0, 7.0, 7.5

PHP: 5.2.1-5.2.6, 5.2.8-5.2.12, 5.2.13, 5.3.0 – 5.3.2


Firefox 3.5, 3.6, IE 7.0, 8.0, Google Chrome 12, Safari 5.0

49

8. Scalability

According to a study by Sun Microsystems that is focused on showing the scalability

of Sugar CRM, the largest number of possible users is approximately 700. (Sun

Microsystems, 2008)


On the Sugar CRM web site, there are some resources that are about getting started

documents which introduce software, training documents, documentation about all

editions and documents about plug-ins. In terms of community support, there are

blogs and forums. There are installation support, language packs, general

discussions, feature requests and help forums. Below there are the last 3 updates and

their release dates.

Sugar Community Edition 6.2.0 Release Date – June 6, 2011

Sugar Community Edition Version 6.2.0 - Release Candidate 3 – May 26, 2011

Sugar Community Edition Version 6.2.0 - Release Candidate 2 – May 13, 2011

Concerning the community concept, there are forums that include installation and

upgrade, help topic, general discussions, feature requests and help for developers.

The community of Sugar CRM is active. Indeed, in the Sugar CRM forum there are

81.924 posts and 23.934 topics for only help thread. For the developer‘s help, there

are 50.004 posts and 13.346 topics.


The Sugar CRM supports multiple languages such as English, French, German,

Italian, Spanish and Chinese Simplified. Sugar CRM is used widely in lots of

countries such as China, United States, India, Germany, Brazil and Netherlands.

With localization Sugar CRM is available in over 22 languages. According to

Sourceforge.net Sugar CRM statistics among 166 countries which downloaded

SugarCRM, Turkey is 22d.

50

7.2.3. Daffodil CRM

7.2.3.1. Overview

Daffodil CRM is a web-based solution that enables the coordination between sales,

marketing, customer service and support. It supplies the automation of everyday

tasks, mission critical and time important issues.

Useful information

Web site: http://crm.daffodilsw.com/

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/daffodilcrm/


Live demo: N/A


Programming Language: JSP, Java, JavaScript

Statistics:


Top Country: India (18% of downloaders)


7.2.3.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

The features of Daffodil CRM that supplies functionalities are listed below:


Sales Forecasting

Marketing Automation

Efficient Opportunity Tracking

Performance Management

2. Ease of use

According to the Daffodil CRM team, it is very user-friendly. However, in our

opinion it is the back of the age, so it is not user friendly anymore. One could deem

that an ordinary user can learn to use it in one or two days. On the other hand, for

professionals it seems to be basic to use it.

3. Security

Daffodil CRM 1.5 allows administrators to set the access right of the users. Rights

can be modified by the administrator.

51

4. Extensibility

The extensibility of the Daffodil CRM is poor, because one cannot add plug-in

feature (sometimes it makes the work of users while using for example outlook and

excel).

5. Customization

The customization is only about the views of the Daffodil CRM.

6. Compatibility

It is possible to create different views of available data and to print them by using the

button of Export to Excel. Daffodil achieved the compatibility with the CRM

package of Compiere.

7. Portability


OS Independent (Written in an interpreted language): any operating system with a

Java 2 Runtime Environment - 1.3 or higher


Databases: One$ DB, Currently database scripts are available for SQL Server, My

SQL, Firebird and Daffodil DB.


Firefox, IE

8. Scalability

For the Daffodil CRM team, it is an ideal CRM solution for the SMEs‘ needs. That is

to say, according to the definition of SMEs, the maximum limit of Daffodil CRM is

250.


On the internet, there is no documentation or training lessons among others. At the

same time there is no forum. On sourceforge.net, there is a forum section and the

statistics of the Daffodil CRM are provided on Figure 6.1. As one can see, there is no

post and no community activity.

52

Figure 6.1: Forum Traffic For Daffodil CRM

The Daffodil CRM‘s first registered date on Sourceforge is the 20th

of January 2005.

The release date was 01/18/06 of the Version 1.5. And the last update date is

07/17/09. The frequency of updates is too low for the Daffodil CRM. Indeed,

according to sourceforge.net, there were only four given version of the Daffodil

CRM between 2005 and 2011.


The Daffodil CRM does not support multi language.

7.2.4. Tustena CRM

7.2.4.1. Overview

The Tustena CRM team claims that ―winning new clients is more expensive than

maintaining existing ones; therefore Tustena CRM will help you to not only gain

new ones but make your current clients more loyal.‖ In this context, Tustena CRM

tries to supply power to organizations thanks to its functionalities and ease of use

among others. However, the OS version of Tustena CRM is no longer provided since

2008. So at the selecting point, this should be considered.

53

Useful information

Web site: http://www.tustena.com/crm/

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tustena/


Live demo: N/A


Programming Language: ASP.NET, C#, JavaScript

Statistics:




7.2.4.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

The features of Tustena CRM that supplies functionalities are below:


Companies/Leads/Contacts Manager

Reporting

Orders

Services Management

2. Ease of use

According to the Tustena Team, it offers a simple and intuitive user interface. One

can agree with them. Yet, even if a user does not use it anytime, when the user logins

to the Tustena CRM, one can feel as if one was using it for one year. There is a

logical layout and we think that the left part of screen evoke a sense of using

Windows XP because it seems like the left bar of windows explorer in Windows XP.

So, using Tustena CRM is easy and one can learn it in a very short time.

3. Security

For Tustena CRM, security is about the connection to the system with the Secure

Socket Layer (SSL) technology which protects the information of organization, and

it is available only for the registered users into the organization thanks to domain

which is a sub network made up of a group of clients and servers under the control of

one central security database (Indiana University, 2010). Yet, each activity is saved

and made available to anyone who is authorized.

54

4. Extensibility

Outlook can be used with Tustena CRM that makes one be able to import messages

directly from Outlook to keep track of email activity thanks to the synchronization

plug-in. Also, it is possible to integrate Tustena CRM with any application already in

use into organizations.

5. Customization

There are no limits to customize Tustena CRM. The software development kit (SDK)

of Tustena CRM includes lots of useful libraries for developing, customizing and for

configuring Tustena CRM. Yet, any software programmer who has the ability of

using Tustena SDK can easily customize the software according to the organization

needs. The sources allow the developers to modify the interface, logics and

integration with other existing applications used by organizations. So Tustena CRM

is extremely customizable.

6. Compatibility

As mentioned before Tustena SDK integration to third party software written by

individuals or another companies is possible. Also you can import any data into the

standard CSV. If your CRM is able to export data in this format, Tustena will be able

to import them.

7. Portability


32-bit MS Windows (NT/2000/XP), operating systems portable (Source code to

work with many operating systems platforms)


Database: Microsoft SQL Server

On the document of Tustena CRM, the provided explanation of system requirements

are ―an internet connection and a modern web browser is all it takes.‖

55


Firefox, IE, Chrome, Safari

8. Scalability

Tustena CRM guarantees that it can be developed and integrated into organizations

of any type, industry or size.


There is no documentation of Tustena CRM. As illustration, in the sourceforge.net

forums some people ask ―how can I get the documentation of Tustena CRM‖ and

nobody can answer.

For Tustena CRM, there is a forum on the web site but after the registration there is

nothing.


Tustena CRM is available only in few languages such as English, Italian and Spanish

but the team argues that new languages will be implemented according to the

requests.

7.2.5. Compiere CRM

7.2.5.1. Overview

According to the documents of Compiere, the organization will have a 360 degree

view of the customers and products. Compiere CRM enables the SMEs to manage

business operations more effectively by taking care of day to day operational details.

Compiere also has ERP functionality but in this study ERP functionalities are

ignored. The separation between ERP and CRM is clear for Compiere (see Figure

6.2). Previously, Compiere CRM was dependent to Oracle database and it was

bringing extra cost to organizations; but as a result of a 3 years work, a team

succeeded to deploy it on Postgres SQL. Therein, Compiere CRM can be considered

as a solution for organizations and especially for SMEs. On the other hand, Compiere

CRM has only CRM standard functionalities and it is not fully developed.

56

Figure 6.2: Distinction of ERP and CRM

Useful information

Web site: http://www.compiere.com/

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/compiere/


Live demo: N/A

User Interface: Gnome, KDE, Web-based

Programming Language: Java, JavaScript, PL/SQL

Statistics:

Sourceforge downloads: 1.643.673 (From registration date)



7.2.5.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

It includes the features below:


Service Automation

Order Management

2. Ease of use

The interface of Compiere CRM is very usable. The Compiere solution uses

Asynchronous JavaScript with XML (AJAX) technology in order to create

http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/?&fq%5B%5D=trove%3A231


57

responsiveness and personalization. Balani and Hathi (2005) have defined ―AJAX

enables a dynamic, asynchronous Web experience without the need for page

refreshes.‖ In our opinion, the most valuable thing in terms of usability is these two

items:

Zoom down to view detail

Zoom across to view related documents

Yet, with the above items Compiere expands accessibility. In every module or

screen, you can click to a label and go to the page. The usage of Compiere can take

some time to learn it.

3. Security

For Compiere, security is supplied by role based authentication. A single user can

have many roles. For instance, by applying the rules of an organization, one can

prevent a user to access some tasks, forms and menu items. Yet, one can restrict as

well the view accounting information, reporting, exporting etc. features are

adjustable in accordance with the role based.

4. Extensibility

Adding new fields and functionalities require software specialists since it uses Java

language.

5. Customization

Compiere CRM allows customization without coding. It allows adding new

windows, changing field names, adding fields into windows, defining default values /

user and changing the window layout.

6. Compatibility

Compiere CRM can be integrated with some other systems. It depends on Compiere

installation type such as community edition and enterprise edition, if the edition is

suitable for compatibility the following third party software written by individuals or

another companies may be included in your product: various Apache Projects, Jboss,

58

Xdoclet, Google Web Toolkit, Qoppa PDF, Oracle The Java Database Connectivity

(JDBC) Driver.

7. Portability


Operating System software that supports Java such as Linux or Microsoft Windows


Database: Oracle XE, Oracle10gR2, Oracle 11g or Enterprise DB Postgres Plus

Adv. Server 8.3.


Firefox 3.0 is recommended for the web user interface.

8. Scalability

Thanks to the ability of deploying multiple application servers, the scalability of

Compiere CRM is very good, it can be adjusted according to organization‘s needs.


The Compiere CRM support is thorough. There are installation guides, getting

starting documents which introduce to software and videos on how to customize. In

terms of community activities Compiere CRM has community support forums

allowing users to interact with one another on various topics from product features to

future requests. Community support forums of Compiere are excellent way to get

help from others. Below there are last three editions:

R3.3.0 2010-06-01

R 3.2.0 2010-01-19 (Major release for community)

R 3.1.0 2008-08-06


The Compiere CRM supports multiple languages. Compiere CRM is used in lot of

countries such as China, United States, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Canada and

proposes more than 10 languages such as Chinese (Traditional), English, French,

http://sourceforge.net/projects/compiere/files/Compiere/R3.3.0/



59

German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. According to Sourceforge.net Compiere

statistics among 192 countries which downloaded Compiere CRM, Turkey is 29th

.

7.2.6. Open CRX

7.2.6.1. Overview

According to the Open CRX team, ―open CRX is an open CRM solution that meets

the needs of organizations requiring multifunctional, enterprise-wide coordination of

sales generation, sales fulfillment, marketing and service activities to customers,

partners, suppliers or intermediaries.‖ After reviewing the Open CRX, one can easily

notice that it has a large number of advanced features which are beyond the main

functionalities of standard CRM software.

Useful information

Web site: http://www.opencrx.org/

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencrx/


Live demo: http://www.opencrx.org/demo-opencrx-core.htm

User Interface: Web – based

Programming Language: Groovy, Java, JavaScript

Statistics:




7.2.6.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

The features of Open CRX that supplies functionalities are listed below:


Customer Service and Support

Bug Tracking / Incident Management

Groupware Features

Product and Service Management

Marketing Automation

60

2. Ease of use

The user interface is not usable as there is no special interface for Open CRX and

one could say it is the weak point. It has an ordinary interface and it can be learned in

little time.

3. Security

OpenCRX supplies a role based user access control. There is advanced

authentication that is about CRXIP corporation which offers advanced security plug-

in for OpenCRX. Yet, OpenCRX supplies the record of level authentication. So, the

information is under the protection. OpenCRX is even secured for financial

institutions.

4. Extensibility

All interfaces are modeled with the Unified Modeling Language (UML), interfaces

are easy to extend. UML is the OMG‘s (is a not-for-profit computer industry

specifications consortium) most-used specification.UML is the way to model not

only the application structure and the architecture but at the same time the data

structure and the business process (Mike, 2011). That is to say, one can write its own

workflow which is a sequence of connected steps to describe the process of an

organization.

5. Customization

The customization of Open CRX is really easy. There is a document to teach how to

customize Open CRX which is named open CRX Basic Customizing Guide.

Workflows, Menus, Fields, appearances and more features can be customized by

organizations in order to fit the solution to their needs.

6. Compatibility

The architecture of Open CRX enables easy integration with the organization‘s

existing applications, for instance it can be SAP or individual solutions based on an

IBM host.

61

7. Portability


64-bit MS Windows, All 32-bit MS Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP), All BSD

Platforms (FreeBSD / Net BSD / Open BSD / Apple Mac OSX), All POSIX

(Linux/BSD/UNIX-like OS ), OS Independent (Written in an interpreted language),

OS Portable (Source code to work with many OS platforms)


Databases: My SQL v5.0, Postgre SQL 8.3+, MS SQL 2005, Oracle 9, IBM DB2

Open CRX runs on any platform with a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)

compliant AppServer.


Any recent version of IE, Opera, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc.

8. Scalability

Open CRX supplies a wide view. That is to say, from one single user who is working

on a laptop to enterprise class with tens of thousands of concurrent users can work

with Open CRX.


On the OpenCRX web site, there are resources about the installation guide, user

guide and how to customize.

In terms of community support, there are blogs and forums. There are opened

discussions, support requests, feature requests and help forums.

Also, there are OpenCRX mailing lists:

OpenCRX-announce

OpenCRX-developers

OpenCRX-users

http://www.microsoft.com/ie/

http://www.opera.com/

http://www.mozilla.org/

http://www.mozilla.org/

http://www.apple.com/safari/

http://www.google.com/chrome

62

One can subscribe these mailing lists and can learn everything what happened, what

will happen, and the answers of some questions.

The community looks small but on the other hand there are regular updates and very

well defined road-map. The last 3 versions and their release dates are below:

OpenCRX 2.8.5 Release Date – May 8, 2011

OpenCRX 2.8.0 Release Date – December 29, 2010

OpenCRX 2.7.0 Release Date – September 9, 2010


OpenCRX supports multiple languages. OpenCRX is used widely in lots of countries

such as China, United States, Germany, India and France with localization available

in over 16 languages such as English, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

According to Sourceforge.net OpenCRX statistics among 173 countries which

downloaded OpenCRX, Turkey is 26th

.

7.2.7. Splendid CRM

7.2.7.1. Overview

Splendid CRM‘s aim is to address small or medium sized organizations, mid-sized

organizations, and larger organizations. Therefore splendid CRM has three editions:

Splendid CRM Community Edition, Splendid CRM Professional Edition, and

Splendid CRM Enterprise Edition.

Useful information

Web site: http://www.splendidcrm.com/

Sourceforge: N/A

Sourceforge registration date: N/A

Live demo:

http://demo.splendidcrm.com/Users/Login.aspx?Redirect=~%2fdefault.aspx


Programming Language: C#, ASP.NET

Statistics:

Sourceforge downloads: Unknown

Top Country: Unknown

Top OS: Unknown

63

7.2.7.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

The Splendid CRM Community Edition that is the current open source version of the

Splendid CRM has limited features; it has only core CRM features, including

accounts, contacts and leads but it excludes advanced features such as reporting,

order management. Yet, it includes also activities and project management.

2. Ease of use

It seems to be complex. The user can configure the dashboard according to his/her

preferences but it is still unattractive. The buttons on the top of the page are

unelaborated. Yet, user can lose himself/herself in the main page. Although it seems

complex, one can learn in acceptable time if one has a usage ability of computer.

3. Security

In Splendid CRM the security feature allows a fine control over who sees which

fields. But only enterprise users can apply field level security to control which fields

were seen by whom.

4. Extensibility

For the Community Edition there is no plug-in.

5. Customization

Customization is possible for Splendid CRM. Splendid CRM team says that ―our

goal is to encourage our partners in order to create some new things uniquely to their

own‖. Organizations can add customized fields and edit any layout which makes it

convenient to tailor.

6. Compatibility

The Splendid CRM Community Edition does not have import / export features and

also the integration with other applications is not valid.

64

7. Portability


The recommendation of Splendid CRM team is that Windows Vista and Windows

XP should be used only to evaluate Splendid CRM. With Windows Vista and

Windows XP the organizations should not use it for a production environment.

Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, Standard Edition,

Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, Standard Edition 32-bit & 64-bit, Enterprise

Edition 32-bit & 64-bit

Windows Server 2008, Web Edition, Standard Edition 32-bit & 64-bit, Enterprise

Edition 32-bit & 64-bit


Databases: SQL Server 2005 Express, Standard 32-bit & 64-bit, Enterprise 32-bit

& 64-bit, SQL Server 2008 Standard 32-bit & 64-bit, Enterprise 32-bit & 64-bit


All modern browsers such as Firefox, Chrome.

8. Scalability

As mentioned before, there are three versions of Splendid CRM, so the scalability is

changing according to the edition. The Splendid CRM Open-Source Edition is

designed for the use of small or medium-sized organizations to support a maximum

up to 100 users. The Splendid CRM Professional Edition is designed to midsized

organizations to support maximum up to 500 users. The Splendid CRM Enterprise

Edition is designed to be used in larger organizations that intend to integrate

Splendid CRM into their existing applications. It is intended for large-scale

deployments supporting up to 1,000 users.


The documentation of how to use it, is very limited but the training of how to use it

with video training is good. On the official web site, there are lots of videos. For

instance, one can watch the subject listed; admin impersonation, Google apps sync,

reporting rules, installing Splendid CRM, etc.

65

The community of Splendid CRM is small. There is a forum and it includes general

discussions, feature requests, help, and announcements. Yet, a blogs exists on the

official web site. The last 3 versions and their release dates are below:

Splendid CRM 5.5 Release Date – June 16, 2011

Splendid CRM 5.0 Release Date – December 3, 2010

Splendid CRM 4.7 Release Date – December 7, 2010


The Splendid CRM supports multiple languages. Splendid CRM supplies

localization available in over 7 languages. For professional and enterprise editions

Splendid CRM supports 53 languages such as English, Turkish, French, Portuguese

and Chinese. (Splendid CRM, 2009)

7.2.8. Hipergate CRM

7.2.8.1. Overview

Hipergate CRM indicates itself as ―the most complete open source Java CRM.‖ For

Hipergate CRM, there is not enough information to explore it in details.

Useful information

Web site: www.hipergate.org/

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/hipergate/


Live demo: N/A


Programming Language: JSP, Java

Statistics:




7.2.8.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

Hipergate CRM supplies the features below:

66

Sales Force automation

Customer support and service

Content management

Project management

2. Ease of use

It seems old today but one can be sure that everyone can use it in a very little time.

3. Security

Hipergate CRM supplies role based security.

Security can be implemented in a company and/or department basis.

Can be integrated with a LDAP directory.

4. Extensibility

There is no plug-in. New functions can be added according to needs of organization.

5. Customization

There is limited customization for Hipergate CRM. The default page layout of

Hipergate CRM can be changed by manual editing and the appearance can be

changed as well.

6. Compatibility

Import from Windows Address Book

Import from data files (text, Excel).

7. Portability


32-bit MS Windows (NT/2000/XP), All 32-bit MS Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP),

All POSIX (Linux/BSD/UNIX-like OSes), Linux, Win2K, Win XP, OS Independent

(Written in an interpreted language)


Database: Microsoft SQL Server, My SQL, Oracle, Postgre SQL













67


Internet Explorer

8. Scalability

According to the Hipergate team the mission of Hipergate CRM is to cover full range

of technical requirements in any organization.


There is no documentation and training tools as the official web site is unavailable

and other resources are linked to the official web site. On Sourceforge.net in order to

help, one can send an email to project administrators. On Sourceforge.net, there is a

section for Hipergate forums email archive. Now subscription to mailing list is

unavailable. Last 3 versions and their release dates are below:

Hipergate 6.0.0 11.12.2010

Hipergate 5.5.2 06.09.2010

Hipergate 5.5.1 28.06.2010


There are more than 10 languages such as Chinese (Simplified), English, French,

German, Italian and Spanish.

7.2.9. CentraView CRM

7.2.9.1. Overview

According to CentraView team, their primary objective is ―to develop and distribute

world-class Open Source business software products and services that provide our

customers and channel partners with a solid foundation on which to build their

business.‖ CentraView CRM addresses to SMEs as well.

Useful information

Web site: www.centraview.com

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/centraview/


Live demo: N/A


http://sourceforge.net/projects/hipergate/files/hipergate/6.0.0/



http://www.centraview.com/

68

Programming Language: JSP, Java

Statistics:




7.2.9.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

CentraView CRM supplies the features below:

Contact Management

SFA

Project Management

2. Ease of use

CentraView provides easy to be used with the similar appearance. One can learn it in

a little time.

3. Security

There is a role-based security. For example, administrator who is fully authorized for

accessing application can configure the software but the others cannot.

4. Extensibility

Adding new function is possible. According to organization‘s needs, a JAVA coder

can code and add.

5. Customization

With the administrative modules, the software can be configured for the

organizations‘ requirements.

6. Compatibility

Synchronization with MS Outlook, Outlook Express can be supplied.

69

7. Portability


OS X, Linux, Windows XP, OS Portable (Source code to work with many OS

platforms)


Database: My SQL


All standard web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.

8. Scalability

CentraView claims that they supply limitless scalability and its power has been

coming from JAVA (J2EE) platform. According to the Sun Developer Network

(n.d.), J2EE simplifies building enterprise applications that are scalable. That is to

say, CentraView offers a scalable architecture that you can build on.


There is only the sourceforge.net forum. In order to emphasize the lack of support

and continuity, the dates of last two posts are: One of them is 2009-05-15 and the

other one is 2007-06-11.

The last 3 versions and their release dates are below:

CentraView 2.1.4 31.10.2005

CentraView 2.1.3 07.10.2005

CentraView 2.1.2 03.10.2005

There is no documentation about CentraView.


CentraView does not support multi-language. There is only an English version.








70

7.2.10. Centric CRM

7.2.10.1. Overview

Centric CRM was acquired by Concursive in 2007 which is a software company. The

slogan of Centric CRM is ―we help you manage customer relationship.‖ According

to Centric CRM (Concursive CRM) team, Centric CRM streamlines organizations‘

sales process, improves customer‘s experience and generating qualified reports. It

can be realized, after acquiring Centric CRM has started to be more stable solution in

terms of documentation, support and security etc.

Useful information

Web site: https://www.concursive.com/

Sourceforge: N/A

Sourceforge registration date: N/A

Live demo: N/A


Programming Language: Unknown

Statistics:

Sourceforge downloads: Unknown

Top Country: Unknown

Top OS: Unknown

7.2.10.2. Evaluation

1. Functionality

Concursive CRM (formerly Centric CRM) supplies the features below:

Marketing

SFA

Customer service

2. Ease of use

Thanks to the Web 2.0 technologies, Concursive CRM is more usable because with

the evolution of Web 2.0 design and usability continue to merge (TechSmith, 2006).

Thus, it can be learned in few days.

3. Security

Security is supplied the features below:

71

LDAP Authentication

SSL logins as well as encrypted passwords.

Single session sign-on per user.

Client browser auto logout.

Action Level Permissions / User Hierarchy

In addition to these security features everything in this product is logged and

monitored.

4. Extensibility

The license allows modifications in order to integrate some third party software but

any distribution or reselling of modified code is forbidden. So this situation makes it

hard to integrate other software. With the Flex module, users can add custom

functionality through the industry standard Portlet architecture. According to the

Portlet specification,

Portlets are web components--like servlets--specifically designed to be

aggregated in the context of a composite page. Usually, many portlets are

invoked in the single request of a portal page. Each portlet produces a fragment

of markup that is combined with the markup of other portlets, all within the

portal page markup. (Community Development of Java Technology

Specifications, 2009)

5. Customization

The customization can be done via porlets web application that runs inside of a

special container. The architecture of Concursive CRM with porlets can be

combined with APIs, so Concursive CRM is highly customizable. Also, all

customization can be done with the administrative module.

6. Compatibility

Products can now be imported from a CSV file.

7. Portability


Linux, Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris

72


Databases: Apache Derby, Daffodil DB, Firebird SQL, IBM DB2, Interbase,

Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2005, My SQL 5, Oracle 10g Express, and Postgre SQL.

Web Server: Centric CRM can be installed on Apache Tomcat 5/5.5, Apache

Geronimo, and IBM Websphere Application Server Community Edition.


All standard web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.

8. Scalability

According to the documents, the clients of Centric CRM include many small

organizations (less than 25 employees) as well as big companies.


After being acquired by Concursive, they made many documents. It deals with the

product information, case studies, how to you use it such as getting started to use.

Also, there is a discussion section on the web site, users can ask questions or request

some features from there.


Concursive CRM allows more than 10 languages such as English, German, and

Italian.

73

7.3. Comparison Table

Vtiger Sugar Daffodil Tustena Compiere OpenCRX Splendid Hipergate CentraView Centric

Functionality

SFA + + + + + + + + + +

Marketing

Automation + + + + √ + √ √ - +

Service Automation + + + + + + - + - +

Ease of use + + + + + √ √ √ + +

Security + + + + + + + + + +

Extensibility + + √ + + + √ √ + +

Customization + + √ + + + + √ + +

Compatibility + + √ + + + - √ √ √

Portability

Operating System

Independence + + + - + + - + + +

System

Requirements + + + - + + + + - +

Supported Browsers + + √ + - + + - + +

Scalability + + + + + + + + + +

Support and

Continuity + + - - + + + - - +

Internationalization + + - + + + + + - +

+ Has

- Does not have

√ Partially has

Table 7.1: Comparison Table

74

As we mentioned before, the objective of the comparison table is to provide a quick

view of selected software in terms of evaluation criteria.

Thus, below we provide a detailed comparison allowing one SME to adopt the most

suitable software to its needs.

First of all, functionality plays a key role for CRM software to be selected by

someone. Considering functionality, SFA, marketing automation and customer

service are the main features. In terms of these three items, Vtiger, Sugar, Daffodil,

Tustena, Open CRX and Centric are accomplished. Compiere and Hipergate have

SFA, service automation and partial marketing automation. They lack: customer

segmentation, customer data integration or campaign management in terms of

marketing automation. For Splendid, the service automation was not included and it

has partially marketing automation although it possesses SFA. CentraView has only

SFA.

As we have seen formerly, the ease of use is one of the most important factors in

determining the acceptance of a CRM solution (especially as an IT system). At this

level, Vtiger, Sugar, Daffodil, Tustena, Compiere, Open CRX, CentraView and

Centric are easy to use. Splendid and Hipergate are partially easy to use. Hipergate

can be learned quickly. Yet, Splendid has a bit more complex interface than others.

Security should be an indispensable feature of software. Each OS CRM solution

selected has security options such as role based or field level or is user based.

Extensibility is about adding new functions or features to the software. For OSS, one

powerful feature is extensibility to meet organizations‘ needs. Vtiger, Sugar,

Tustena, Compiere, Open CRX, CentraView and Centric provide the ability to add

new functions or features. Daffodil, Splendid and Hipergate have partial

extensibility. Indeed, there is no plug-in for them but since they are OSS, the code

source can be reached and is extensible in accordance to organizations‘ needs.

Customization is important for meeting organizations‘ needs. If an organization can

customize the software according to its needs, it will require less time to be learned

75

and will create a sense of ownership. In this respect, Vtiger, Sugar, Tustena,

Compiere, Open CRX, Splendid, CentraView and Centric can be customized. On the

other hand Daffodil and Hipergate can be partially customized (only views have this

option). Like the extensibility, customization is allowed by the nature of OSS.

Compatibility is about to import / export features and integration with other

applications. Sometimes exchanging data between applications or systems can be

desired. Therein, one should import or export the necessary file to maintain its

operation. Vtiger, Sugar, Tustena, Compiere and Open CRX have compatibility

features such as exporting / importing CSV files and spreadsheet files and they can

be integrated with other applications. Daffodil, Hipergate, CentraView and Centric

have compatibility feature but relatively less than the others in terms of exchanging

data; however, Splendid does not have any compatibility feature.

Portability was divided into three sub categories in this study. These are operating

system independence, system requirements and supported browsers. Vtiger, Sugar,

Open CRX and Centric have the ability of being portable in terms of sub categories.

Daffodil has a weakness in terms of only being supported by few browsers. Tustena

and CentraView are incomplete. Tustena is dependent to MSSQL, CentraView is

dependent to MySQL. At the same time Tustena is dependent to operating systems

like Splendid. In terms of supported browsers, Firefox is recommended for Compiere

and Internet Explorer is recommended for Hipergate. The other CRMs can be used

with all the modern browsers such as Chrome, IE and Firefox.

Scalability is about working in higher workloads when the organization‘s size starts

to grow. This feature is certainly one of the most important items of today‘s software

systems. For all the selected OS CRM solutions in this study, scalability is one of the

common points with SFA and security.

Support and continuity is important for OSS. Indeed, even if the selected CRM

solution is the best, if there is not support and continuity, it does not mean anything

to SMEs. In this respect, Vtiger, Sugar, Compiere, Open CRX, Splendid and Centric

deserve recognition. They have a huge documentation to make the implementation

and the use easier. On the other hand, Daffodil, Tustena and CentraView have

76

nothing concerning the support and continuity. For Hipergate there is nothing about

the support and the last 3 versions were released last year.

In order to be understood by different cultures and people, internationalization is an

important factor. Internationalization is one of the keys because if someone

understands what he / she uses, application will be more accessible, easier to use,

more flexible from user‘s point of view. Except for Daffodil and CentraView, the

other 8 OS CRMs achieved to be multilingual and international.

Important note: After the acquisition of Centric CRM by Concursive, its

development has been accelerated; in this study, the values shown are after its

acquisition.

In the light of above comments, one can choose OS CRM software to meet its

organization‘s needs.

7.4. CRM Implementation

After choosing the suitable CRM software for an organization, the most important

thing is to have the ability to make the implementation. Chaffey and Wood (2005)

underlined some results about the failure rate of CRM implementation projects:

Butler Group found 70 percent of CRM implementations fail.

A Gartner study found that 55 percent of all CRM projects failed to meet

customers' expectations.

According to researches, more than half of the organizations which have

implemented CRM have difficulties during and after implementation.

According to Dorsey (2000), each project can be viewed as a tripod. Whole legs have

to be at the right place in order to stand solid. These three legs are support of top

management, development methodology and leadership. Below there is a list:

1. Support of top management: Without the full support from the top

management, when a problem happens on a project, the project will be

broken down.

77

2. Development methodology: A large number of systems are built with little

concern toward processes. Thus, there is little chance to complete the project.

3. Leadership: If a project has a solid leadership by someone who has worked

with similar projects and has successfully completed them, there will be

much more chance to complete the project.

Without each of them, one can be sure that the tripod will tumble and the project will

fail. Thus, by following this tripod, one organization will be able to increase its

chances of implementing a robust CRM system.

78

Chapter 8

Conclusion


The objective of this chapter is to conclude the thesis with research perspective and

implication and suggestion for further research.

8.2. Research Perspective and Implication

The objective of this thesis is to provide to SMEs a better understanding about CRM

and a way to select OS CRM for organizations to create value. In the first 4 chapters,

the theoretical part, relevant literatures were reviewed in order to clarify on the CRM

approach, SMEs and OSS. The first 4 chapters form the main theme of this thesis.

Thanks to CRM, organizations can tailor specific goods and services to each

individual customer by using customer identification. In order to satisfy customers,

CRM is an indispensable technology enabler. Although SMEs play a major role in

the world economy (in Turkey as well), they have some budget limitations,

especially regarding IT. OSS are then potential solutions for SMEs. Recently, many

OS CRM software were disclosed on the web especially on Sourceforge.net. In order

to find out which OS CRM is one step beyond, match the needs of organizations, an

evaluation method is given in the chapter 5. In the light of quality measurements

such as the ISO/IEC 9126 and Chaffey and Wood‘s criteria, the suitable software

evaluation criteria were selected. In chapter 6, the top 10 OSS were listed by

considering their popularity and number of downloads from Sourceforge.net.

In chapter 7, in order to investigate which one is one step beyond, functionality, ease

of use, security, extensibility, customization, compatibility, portability (operating

79

system dependence, system requirements, and supported browsers), scalability,

support and continuity and internationalization criteria are processed. After obtaining

information about the selected top 10 OS CRM, a comparison table was done,

allowing a quick view of the main elements and to compare them at glance. In order

to find an alternative way of commercial software, this thesis aims to create

awareness among SMEs about CRM, OSS and OS CRM. Thus, helping SMEs to

develop CRM and be more competitive!

As limitation, one can underline that the evaluation of the ease of use is a subjective

fact. Thus, an evaluation done by a sufficient number of persons would be more

suitable.

8.3. Suggestion for Further Research

It is suggested that further research should implement OS CRM into SMEs in order

to introduce new evaluation criteria i.e. the performance and stability.

80

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Appendix A: The Open Source Definition

The Open Source Definition (Annotated) (OSI, n.d.)

Version 1.9

Introduction

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of

open-source software must comply with the following criteria:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a

component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several

different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

Rationale: By constraining the license to require free redistribution, we eliminate the

temptation to throw away many long-term gains in order to make a few short-term

sales dollars. If we didn't do this, there would be lots of pressure for cooperators to

defect.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as

well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source

code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no

more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet

without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer

89

would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed.

Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

Rationale: We require access to un-obfuscated source code because you can't evolve

programs without modifying them. Since our purpose is to make evolution easy, we

require that modification be made easy.

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be

distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

Rationale: The mere ability to read source isn't enough to support independent peer

review and rapid evolutionary selection. For rapid evolution to happen, people need

to be able to experiment with and redistribute modifications.

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if

the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the

purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit

distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require

derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original

software.

Rationale: Encouraging lots of improvement is a good thing, but users have a right

to know who is responsible for the software they are using. Authors and maintainers

have reciprocal right to know what they're being asked to support and protect their

reputations.

Accordingly, an open-source license must guarantee that source be readily available,

but may require that it be distributed as pristine base sources plus patches. In this

way, "unofficial" changes can be made available but readily distinguished from the

base source.

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5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

Rationale: In order to get the maximum benefit from the process, the maximum

diversity of persons and groups should be equally eligible to contribute to open

sources. Therefore we forbid any open-source license from locking anybody out of

the process.

Some countries, including the United States, have export restrictions for certain types

of software. An OSD-conformant license may warn licensees of applicable

restrictions and remind them that they are obliged to obey the law; however, it may

not incorporate such restrictions itself.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific

field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a

business, or from being used for genetic research.

Rationale: The major intention of this clause is to prohibit license traps that prevent

open source from being used commercially. We want commercial users to join our

community, not feel excluded from it.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is

redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

Rationale: This clause is intended to forbid closing up software by indirect means

such as requiring a non-disclosure agreement.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a

particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and

used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the

91

program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in

conjunction with the original software distribution.

Rationale: This clause forecloses yet another class of license traps.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along

with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other

programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

Rationale: Distributors of open-source software have the right to make their own

choices about their own software.

Yes, the GPL v2 and v3 are conformant with this requirement. Software linked with

GPLed libraries only inherits the GPL if it forms a single work, not any software

with which they are merely distributed.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style

of interface.

Rationale: This provision is aimed specifically at licenses which require an explicit

gesture of assent in order to establish a contract between licensor and licensee.

Provisions mandating so-called "click-wrap" may conflict with important methods of

software distribution such as FTP download, CD-ROM anthologies, and web

mirroring; such provisions may also hinder code re-use. Conformant licenses must

allow for the possibility that (a) redistribution of the software will take place over

non-Web channels that do not support click-wrapping of the download, and that (b)

the covered code (or re-used portions of covered code) may run in a non-GUI

environment that cannot support popup dialogues.

92

Curriculum Vitae

Ertürk Yılmaz was born in August 13th, 1985, in Istanbul. He received his BS in

Mathematics and Computing in 2009 from Beykent University, where he graduated

second in his class from the Faculty of Science and Letters. From 2008 to 2010, he

worked as a project specialist in a company. Since the beginning of 2011 he is

software specialist in a company.

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